Sly Cooper 4: Legacy of Thieves
by JakCooperThePlumber
Summary: 5 years have passed since the Cooper Vault job and a lot has changed. Sly Cooper is now a cop, living a mostly peaceful life with the love of his life, Carmelita Montoya Fox. Bentley and Penelope, while still committing crimes on occasion, are married. And Murray is in the demolition derby. However, a new threat will soon force the Cooper Gang to reunite for one final job.
1. Prologue

A/N: For those of you who are curious, this story is going to be how I feel Sly 4 should have went, because I was very unhappy with the game as a whole. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

Sly Cooper 4: Legacy of Thieves

Prologue

The sky was dark, and rain thundered down on Paris from pitch black clouds, not a star catching the eye. The streets were mostly emptied from vehicles. An ominous shadow loomed inside the safe house. The only positive appearance was that Bentley had clearly done some work to his home, it looked like an expensive house, not on the outside but on the inside. The walls were painted a bright shade or red, pictures hung in every room, new carpet on the floor that had clearly just been vacuumed, and some of the nicest furniture you'll ever see. Bentley was in his bedroom, sitting in his wheel chair, tinkering with some device. His face looked sad. He struggled to put on a smile, seemingly finished with whatever he was working on as Penelope walked into the room. Penelope had grown long, flowing, blond hair since the time she first ran with the Cooper Gang, and her glasses were slightly larger.

"You done?" Penelope asked, her voice cheerful, probably in an attempt to get rid of Bentley's sorrowful mood.

"Yes, I think so." Bentley replied in a nastily voice.

He rolled over to a large desk and sat the device on it. It looked like a clock, except larger than normal, with roman numerals rather than numbers, and had a slight bit of electricity surging through the inside, concealed behind a circular piece of glass.

Bentley continued. "I just wish Sly were here to experience this."

"I know dear." Penelope consoled him. "It's sad that he gave up being a thief, but at least he's happy and alive. I think that's the best we could hope for."

"True." Bentley agreed. "Anyhow, let's get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll have to hunt down Murray and see if he wants to come along."

Penelope quickly got undressed and slipped into a thin night gown. She then grabbed Bentley under the arm pits and lifted him up, laying him on his stomach on their bed. She folded up his wheel chair, put it in the closet adjacent from the bed, and climbed in the bed herself, covering both of them up. Bentley slid into his shell, peaking his head out briefly so they could kiss each other on the lips, after which Penelope clapped her hands twice, the lights in the room flickering off, and the two prepared for dreamland, excited for their adventures that would begin the next day, unaware of the horror that was about to occur.

The sun shined high in the sky, beaming down on the world. The rain had stopped, but the ground still had puddles due to the down poor that had previously occurred. Murray, the fat, pink, hippopotamus, was watching the demolition derby. The arena was littered with broken down cars, vans, and trucks, and pieces of broken down cars, vans, and trucks, and driving over everything was the vehicles about to be broken down, ramming into each other at breakneck speeds. The audience was situated far back from the action so they don't get struck by any debris, and there was an announcer who was commenting on everything that went on. Murray wasn't in the audience, but was instead in the balcony, preparing for his own time in the spotlight. Hew as wearing a helmet fashioned with red flames and seemed to have lost a tiny bit of weight, although he was still obese. An unknown person called him from another room, and he shook his head and headed straight down to the garage. Once there he saw three animals, a red fox, a gray raccoon, and a purple hippo, working on his van, which had the Cooper symbol removed. Finished with their repairs, the three rose to their feet and turned to Murray, who looked very happy.

"Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it." Murray exclaimed.

"No problem." The hippo responded in a gruff voice. The three removed the van from the machinery that was keeping it extended in the air as they continued to talk.

"Knock'em dead out there." The raccoon said, his voice sounding rather young for his looks.

The fox spoke next. "Remember to focus, and go fast. This is the last race, you're so close to winning the prize money for our team."

"I always go fast." Murray exclaimed with confidence.

Murray got in his van, started it up, let it run for a few seconds, and then, as soon as the announcer called for the next batch, sped out onto the arena with all of the other vehicles. It didn't take long for one to target Murray's van. Seeing an opportunity, Murray slammed on the gas, the wheels spinning and screeching like crazy, a cloud of dust forming behind him, and he completely totaled the oncoming red truck. The entire front side and both doors were torn clean off, and all of the windows were completely shattered, not to mention every other part of the truck was dented beyond belief. Murray spun the wheel around all the way and made a sudden turn of the van 180 degrees, after which targeting another vehicle, this time an old blue van about the same size as Murray's van. This one was better than the previous because it was nearly as damaged. It only got dents all over it, the front windshield shattered, and the other windows just cracked, but it was still unable to continue so Murray won that round. This trend continued for an hour until time ran out, Murray getting a score of thirty eight, dominating his previous score of thirty. With his van still somehow functional, Murray pulled it back into the garage to be repaired, shut it down, stepped out, slamming the door behind him, and throwing off his helmet in excitement.

"OH, YEAH! NOBODY CAN TOPPLE THE MURRAY!" he boasted.

Before he could continue soaking up his victory, he caught a familiar face out of the corner of his eye. Penelope. He ran over to her and gave her a big hug. He was squeezing her so hard she could barely breath, but thankfully Murray noticed this and let her go. Being knocked off her feet, she scrambled back up and dusted herself off-the warehouse was unbelievably filthy-and then greeted him with another hug, this one much more gentle.

"It's been awhile, Murray." She said. "You still doing okay for yourself?"

"Hell yeah." He exclaimed. "I miss the good 'ol days with the Gang, but this is definitely the next best thing. I love the demolition derby." Penelope attempted to speak, but he cut her off. "I haven't been able to say this for years, so I will now. Thanks for sending these mechanics. Who knew that you had contacts with other thief Gangs."

"We have contacts everywhere." Penelope confirmed. "What did they help you with?"

"Let me show you!" Murray and Penelope walked over to the front of the van while the three mechanics worked to repair it. "See this?" Murray placed his hand on the front bumper, which was dented, but that was still just a minor repair for his genius mechanics. He whispered as other unrelated people walked by distantly. "This is an enhanced version of the Battery Ram we put on the van after recovering Otto van Cooper's section of the Thieveus Raccoonus. It pushes forward just enough to triple the strength of my van, but not far enough so onlookers will notice it."

"That's pretty impressive." Penelope said. "Look Murray, I need to talk to you. Mind stepping outside for a bit?"

"Sure, that was my last competition for the day, let's go." He agreed.

The two of them walked side by side through the facility until they reached the outside. They snuck behind the building so nobody would hear them chat, and then Penelope pulled out one of the Cooper Gang's trademark calling cards, shocking her hippo friend.

"Man, that brings back memories." He said. "What has it been, five years since I've seen that?"

"Yeah." Penelope replied. "You've been in demolition derby, and Sly faked amnesia so he could become a cop, but me and Bentley have still been committing crimes together. "She explained. "But let me cut to the chase. We want you back on the team, Murray."

"That's a hard sell." Murray responded. "I know I said before that I miss the Gang, and this is only the next best thing, but I do genuinely love it here. Plus, as much fun as I had being a thief, it is kind of nice not always being on the run, ya know? I'll have to give it some thought."

"What if we were able to get Sly back? Would you rejoin then?" Penelope proposed.

"Hm? Sly?" Murray said, confused. "You said he was a cop now. He was finally able to get within the woman he loved. You sure you'll be able to convince him?"

"Oh, I've got an idea." Penelope said with a chuckle. "See, me and Bentley invented a time machine, and we were hoping to go back and visit Sly's ancestors."

"Really?" Murray was even more confused now. "I don't really understand science and whatnot, but I get the jist. That might work. I'll tell you what", he finally said, reluctantly, "if you can get him back on the team, then contact me and I'll gladly help out."

"That's great to hear!" Penelope, satisfied, gave Murray one more hug and then left, hurriedly driving away in her rustic-looking 1950's car.

Night was falling in Paris, France, and Carmelita, the feisty orange fox woman, was taking yt another late night in her office, filling out papers, cleaning her favorite shock pistol, and stepping outside to take occasional patrols. Like usual she was one of the only Interpol agents that was staying that late, weather it was because she was a workaholic or everyone else was lazy, she was unsure. The work was finally starting to get to her, and she started to doze off in her chair, only to be shook awake by Sly Cooper, unusually adorned in standard Interpol garb, a blue shock pistol attached to his waist. Carmelita was so tired she had tears in her eyes, which Sly wiped away with one finger. The wind began to pick up outside, and blew into the room due to Carmelita leaving the windows open; Sly quickly walked over to the windows and shut them both, after which picking up the papers and that had been blown everywhere and setting them neatly on Carmelita's desk.

"Sly." Carmelita said in a slightly woozy voice. "Thanks for waking me up. I must be more out of it than I thought."

"Clearly." Sly said jokingly in his normal, cocky tone. "You didn't even notice me walk in this time, even though you're only a few feet from the door." He knelt down and peered straight into her eyes. "Listen, go home. I can finish things here, you just need to rest.

"No, I'll be f…" before she could finish her statement, she attempted to stand up, but fell over in exhaustion. Sly caught her in his arms.

Sly set out some blankets which Carmelita had in a close-it was normal for her to sleep in her office-and laid them out, afterwards setting her aside to allow her to sleep, resigning to the idea that it isn't; a very good idea for her to go home in the state she's in. He no more than sat down in her chair, prepared to finish her work, when he heard a noise on the roof. Grabbing his shock pistol from the holster and resting his finger on the trigger he went out the window to the balcony, gently shutting them behind him, and made his way up the fire escape to the top of the building, making sure to make as little noise as possible. He peaked over the ledge, and saw a thief doing something, but it was too dark for him to make out who it was, only that they were extremely short. Creeping to the roof, he snuck around the water tower and then spring out, pointing his shock pistol at the culprit and shouting to freeze, only to be stunned to realize that it was in fact his old best friend, Bentley, sneaking around for some reason.

"Sly?" Bentley exclaimed after raising his hands up in the air. "Thank goodness it's just you."

Sly lowered his shock pistol, but still looked flabbergasted. "Bentley? What're you doing here?"

"Is that what you ask after being five years apart, buddy?" He retorted jokingly.

"Sly didn't seem as amused. "Look, it's good to see you again, but you need to get out of here. I don't want to arrest you, but I will if other cops show up and see us together, especially Carmelita."

"Yes yes, I know, I'll leave in a little bit. But for right now, we need to talk, Sly." Bentley stated.

"Alright, talk then, but it quick." Sly allowed.

After Bentley explained the situation, Sly, still puzzled, holstered his shock pistol and sat down in one of the chairs on the roof to think. After a few seconds, Sly looked at Bentley and sighed.

"Sorry pal, but I can't rejoin." He explained. "It's not that I don't miss you guys. I do. But I've really made life for myself here. I've become a Captain at Interpol alongside Carmelita, which pays well. I've finally got married to the woman I've loved for a long time. And what's more, she recently brought up to me the idea of having kids. There';s nothing more that I could've ever wanted."

"But Sly." Bentley responded, disappointed. "Don't you think your father would be ashamed that you gave up the Cooper Clan Legacy and just let it die?"

"No." Sly said, slightly irritated. "If he loved me, and I know he did, all he would want is for me to be happy. And I am happy. Thanks for the offer, but I have to decline."

"Even if it means not being able to meet your ancestors?" Sly didn't respond, but the look in his eyes told Bentley everything he needed to know. "Alright then, I tried. Still, it was nice to see you again, pal."

"Yeah, same here." Sly bent over and gave Bentley a hug.

Bentley radioed in to Penelope, who hovered her white RC Chopper overhead, after which lowering several cables which attached to his wheel chair and lifted him up in the air. As this occurred, they both head Carmelita approached the roof. The two gazed in each other's eyes and instantly knew what the other was thinking. Bentley told Penelope to hurry, and so she did. Sly then hollered out to Bentley to freeze and began firing shock pistols, deliberately missing; this noise caused Carmelita to get to the roof faster, after which she joined him. While Carmelita wasn't trying to intentionally miss, Sly was able to knock a lot of her shock pistol shots out of the air while making it look like an accident. After Bentley was out of sight, the two lowered their shock pistols. Carmelita looked at Sly, realizing that the criminal they were shooting at was one of Sly's old friends, bu the looked just as angry as her so she didn't catch on.

"Who was that?" Sly asked.

Carmelita remained silent for a moment, and then responded. "A pretty famous thief. He's on Interpol's most wanted list, bu has been mostly dormant for five years, which is probably why you haven't heard of him. He calls himself Bentley.

Sly had to struggle to keep a grin of his face. They both left the roof and returned to Carmelita's office. Sly saw that Carmelita had put the blankets that he covered her up with away, and suggested that they leave for the night, which she reluctantly agreed to do; it was 3:00 in the morning, 5 hours after everyone else left. The two left the office, shutting the lights off, and heading out to the parking lot, which only contained three vehicles, two unknown cars, and their black car. Sly drove and Carmelita rested in the passenger's side as they rode home. It didn't take very long because they lived quite close to Interpol headquarters. Before too long Sly gazed over to his sleeping love and gave a large sigh. He smirked, stroking the orange fur that was above her temples. He pulled into the parking lot, wake up Carmelita, and they got out; Sly had to help Carmelita regain her bearings for a few seconds. The two slowly walked to their house, opened up the door, and walked inside. Their house was blue and extremely large, it must have been three stories. While all this was happening Sly was having fun teasing Carmelita about how exhausted she was-apparently, this was an unusual occurrence-until he turned the lights on in the house.

Their house was trashed. Several windows and mirrors were shattered, their video game and movie shelves were all knocked over-there must have been several dozen of those-the carpet, which looked expensive, had burn marks in several locations, the walls had holes in them, the back door was left wide open, and the refrigerator and all the cubbards had been raided, some of the cubbard doors even broken off their hinges. Both of them, in disbelief, took a recon through the entire house, and found there was almost no room left intact. After regrouping in the living room, they both sat down on the couch, which was one of the few things still worth wile, and turned on the TV, which continued to play, relatively quietly, as they joke.

"Look at this. " Carmelita said, handing a calling card to Sly.

He took it from her hand and stared at it for a good minute, analyzing it thoroughly. "How's our bedroom?" He then said suddenly.

"Um, it's fine. Why?" She asked in confusion.

"Then get some rest." He demanded. "You need it more than me. I'm gonna head back to the station and attempt to figure out what this is." Sly stood up and started walking for the door as Carmelita made for the hallway that leads to their bedroom. "I'm also gonna call up Winthrop. He probably won't be too happy about being called in at this hour, but he's Interpol's best analyst."

"Good idea." Carmelita agreed. "You take care of yourself. Whoever did this, they could attack you while you're driving."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry though, I can take care of myself."

Carmelita disappeared into the hallway, and Sly left the house, slamming the door behind him. He got in the car, started it up, pulled out of the parking lot, and drove away, traveling five miles above the speed limit so he doesn't waste any time. Sly pressed a few buttons on the front of his car, which began to ring. Interpol cop cars are specifically designed to have phones built into them just encase they need to make a call and don't want to break the law. After three rings and exhausted sounding Winthrop picks up on the other end. His speech was very slow, and his voice had a slightly high pitch.

"Who is this?"

"This is Captain Cooper." Sly replied. "I know what time it is, but I need you to get to Interpol headquarters immediately, it's an emergency."

"Uh, sure, but mind elaborating?" Winthrop inquired.

"I'll explain later, just hurry." Sly finished, pressing a button on the car's dashboard to end the call. It was only a few seconds later when he arrived back at Interpol.

Sly made his way to his office, which was just right to Carmelita's office, just a moment before Winthrop arrived. Winthrop was a purple weasel, slightly shorter than Sly, with a small patch of brown hair on his head, a gigantic red bow tie by his neck, green suspenders, brown s hoes, and glasses, and had a decently large tail. He has two shock pistols holstered, one on each side of his wait. They both entered the office, turned on the lights, and Sly handed Winthrop the evidence which was safely sealed inside of a small zip lock bag. Sly explained the situation to Winthrop, who all of a sudden started looking more serious once he realized how dire it is.

"I want you to study that." Sly ordered, curing Winthrop's confused expression.

"Well, I'll be off then." Winthrop said. "Is that all?"

As Winthrop started to leave, Sly took his shoulder and shook his head. "Stay here. Just in case the culprits decide to come here as well, which is a possibility considering they attacked the home of two police officers, we should remain together."

"Understood, Captain." Winthrop agreed.

Winthrop sat down by a desk close to the door, which was shut, and Sly got to a desk on the other side of the room, picking up the phone to make a call. They remained mostly in silence for awhile, the only noises being Sly whispered over the phone, and Winthrop's occasional sounds of thoughtfulness and typing a ta computer. After awhile he got out of his chair and hurried over to Sly, who just hung up the phone and released a huge sigh.

"Captain." Winthrop insisted. "I think I've got something.

"Hm." Sly only turned his head.

"I was unsure at first," Winthrop explained, "so I wanted to make sure, but I've seen this symbol before. At several crime scenes that I've investigated."

The symbol on the calling card was the face of a black stallion with demonic-looking red eyes. The card itself appears to the same size as Sly's old calling cards. Winthrop turned it over and looked confused when he didn't see anything.

"On most of these there's text on the back. They usually say 'Master' or 'Overlord'." he said.

All of a sudden, a knock came to the door. Sly answered it, and saw it was Captain Barkley, the person Sly was previously talking with on the phone. He was a short badger with brown fur all over his body, a large white mustache, large white eyebrows, a white shirt, long red tie, and a yellow star badge on his chest he had an angry expression on his face. He walked in and Sly shut the door behind him.

"Sorry, sir," Sly said, "but we're clearly being targeted, I want the door closed."

"What's this all about, Cooper." Barkley demanded.

Sly explained the little bit of information and they're gathered on the situation so far, and Captain Barkley caressed his mustache, looking thoughtful.

"Alright, I'll inform all of Interpol tomorrow." He stated. "In the meantime, you both should go home and get some rest. We'll all need to be full of energy in order to face what's coming."

Sly and Winthrop agree, and the three leave Sly's office, turned off the computer, shutting off the light, and shutting the door, locking it behind them. After exiting the Interpol building, also shutting off the light and locking the door of it, Barkley heads to his large black pickup truck, Winthrop to his red Prius, and Sly to his black car. Barkley and Winthrop were the first to drive away. Sly sat waiting in his car for some reason, and when they were out of sight he stepped out, leaving the door open, and called for Bentley to come out of hiding. Embarrassed, Bentley slowly emerged from the shadows, near the back end of Sly's car. Sly turned around, strangely seeming more happy than last time.

"You again?" Sly said, jokingly.

"That's the sarcasm I'm used to." Bentley teased.

"Look, I already told you…"

Bentley cut him off, talking so fast that he occasionally stumbled over his words. "I'm not gonna attempt to convince you to join back up with the gang again, at least not on a permanent basis. But we do need you help, it's urgent."

Sly, confused, walked closer to his old pal. "What's going on, Bentley?" He inquired, recognizing the urgency in Bentley's voice.

Bentely then began an elaborate explanation of what occurred between now and the last time they chatted with each other.

Bentley soared above Paris attached to five cables extended from Penelope's RC Chopper. Before too long they arrived back at their house, and Bentley was placed safely by the door. After that he entered, and Penelope, who was on top of the safe house, followed closely behind after recovering her RC Choper. They closed and locked the door behind them, after which turning on the list.

"Were you listening in?" Bentley inquired to his lover.

"Yes, I heard everything." She confirmed. It's too bad that Sly won't quit being a cop. And without him, we won't be able to get Murray back either.

"Indeed." Bentley somberly agreed.

The two headed for their bedroom, but stopped dead in their tracks when the front door slammed open with great fury. They turned their heads with a start, and saw four cloaked figures walk through the door. They were huge individuals, muscular, and shoulders hunched up like football players. The only parts of their bodies that were visible were tiny parts of their hands and feet, and they were each carrying machine guns almost as large as their bodies.

"I thought you said they weren't home." One of the cloaked figures boomed.

"Looks like our information wasn't accurate." Another said.

"No matter." A third gloated. "As long as we don't have to deal with Cooper or the fat hippo, it still won't be a problem."

The fourth shook his head and pointed. "Look, it's the brainiac turtle and mouse. Let's take them hostage." He suggested. "I'm sure Cooper won't think about fighting against us if we have his precious friends."

The four cloaked figures approached Bentley and Penelope, but Penelope was quick. She leaped in the air and did a spin kick to one of their heads, punching another hard in the gut, sending them both tumbling to the ground in pain. As she took time to brag, a third one crept up behind her and grabbed her, throwing her up against a wall. She hit her head with such force that she got knocked unconscious. Thinking fast, Bentley unleashed a smoke bomb, which was hid inside of his wheel chair, and made a run for it, traveling the length of their large house. The room the front door was connected to led to a long hallway. T his hallway connected to almost every other room in the house, including all the bedrooms, the dinning room,t he bathroom, the laundry room, and the garage. The back door, which led to the patio, was attached to the same hallway adjacent to the front door. Bentley scurried as fast as he possibly could away from the intruders. It pained him to leave the love of his life behind, but he wouldn't accomplish anything by getting himself captured too. Besides, he had faith that Penelope wouldn't be harmed because of the thug's desire to use her as a bargaining chip with Sly. Every few feet Bentley released some more smoke bombs to make sure that the thugs' vision would remain obscured until he left the safe house. He finally got to the back door, exited, and slammed it tight. Realizing that he was out of smoke bombs, Bentley headed into the shed behind their house and hurriedly acquired not only more of them, but also several other weapons, plus his, Sly's, and Murray's binocucom's. he had removed his own previously to conserve space in his wheel chair; after all, his wheel chair might be great, but even it has a limit to how much technology that it can hold at any given time. With all that done, he left the shed and began strolling up the street. With Penelope being captured he can't ride in the car due to not having the use of his legs. He left just in the nick of time too, because the Thugs had just caught up and were leaving his house. Three of them attempted to give chase, but the fourth one, who was probably the leader of the four, stopped them.

"Don't bother." He said. "Just mess up the house like we did with the other. After that, take the girl and get out of here. We made a scene, so it won't be long before the cops arrive."

His partners obeyed, and entered the house, their leader following closely behind after letting out a cocky chuckle.

Sly was sitting in the seat of his opened car as Bentley told the story, his head lowered in somberness, his hands tightly clutching his knees. Bentley was sitting in front of him. After he was done, Sly took a few seconds to absorb the information he was told, and then explained to Bentley what had happened with them lately. When they were done chatting, Murray suddenly showed up in his van, the Cooper Gang symbol returned to it, which brought a rush of nostalgia to Sly, which he tried to hide. Murray got out, and Bentley explained that he contacted him on his way here. Murray was also dressed in his traditional garb. Before they could continue their conversation, Murray opened up the back doors of the van and out hopped The Guru, adorned in his underwear and hold his Walking Staff with his Moon Stone tied to it with a string.

"Didn't expect this." Sly exclaimed. "Looks like I've got no choice but to rejoin now."

"You sound disappointed, Sly." Murray responded jokingly.

"It's not that." Sly assured him. "It's just that I've made a great life for myself with Carmelita. We've even talked about having children. But now some asshole is targeting us. I'm sure I'll have lots of fun running with you guys again, but my reason for concern is how I'll explain this to Carmelita. She still thinks I have amnesia."

"I'm sure she'll understand if we explain the situation to her, Sly." Bentley replied.

"I hope so."

"Oh, Sly, one more thing. Sorry for what I said earlier. Ya know, about your father? That was out of line." Bentley lamented. "I'm sure that no matter what you did with your life, weather it's a thief or a cop, he'd still be proud of you."

"Thanks pal." Sly responded. "That means a lot to me."

Sly shut the door to his car, and Murray, Guru, and Bentley got inside the Cooper Van. The two vehicles pulled out of the Interpol parking lot. As they left, a shadowy figure could be faintly seen talking to someone on a hand held radio.


	2. Great Injustice

A/N: Before you read this chapter, I just want to say that "Kamehameha" is the name of a line of Hawaiian Kings, so no Dragonball jokes please. Anyways, enjoy.

The streets were ominously quiet aside from a few select vehicles rushing past, two of which being Sly's car and the Cooper Van back to back, both going faster than the posted speed limit so they would arrive as quickly as possible. The Cooper Van was secretly prepared encase they were suddenly attacked, but Sly looked paranoid, constantly shifting his eyes to either side of the road looking for danger. The two vehicles drove into the parking lot of Sly's house. Murray parked the Cooper Van at the foot of the winding path, and him, Bentley, and Guru got out and followed Sly up to the house. At Sly's behest the three of them hid behind the house. Sly wanted to explain the situation to Carmelita first. If she saw wanted thieves in her house out of nowhere, then she would immediately reach for her shock pistol and be incapable of listening to reason, even from the man she loved. They obeyed, and Sly entered. As soon as he did he saw Carmelita circle the corner in a nightgown, rubbing her eyes from exhaustion, flicking on the light.

"Sly?" She said in a weary voice. "You're back sooner than expected." She lightly rubbed her eyes.

"I got Winthrop to analyze the evidence, and Barkley to investigate." Sly explained. "Anyways, Carm, let's go over here and sit down. We have to discuss something.'

Carmelita was confused, but did as Sly instructed. The two sat on the couch, which was placed on the left side of one of the rocking chairs which was adjacent from the television. Sly remained in silence for a brief moment, and then began explaining the situation, stuttering every few minutes in fear of what she might say. The explanation not only included having to work with thieves to solve this mystery, but also the fact that he never had amnesia to begin with. To Sly's surprise Carmelita remained perfectly calm throughout the entire explanation. Carmelita usually had an amazing poker face, but he figured that something like this would've easily broke that. After he was done, silence remained for several minutes as Carmelita attempted to let all she heard sink in, Sly hoping that she'd understand.

"Carm?" Sly finally said with slight hesitation.

"Let me get this straight." She responded, trying to stay composed. "First you lied to me about having amnesia, and now you want me to team up with a band of thieves?"

"Look, I know how this sounds." Sly pleaded. "But we don't have much of a choice in the matter. Not only was our house attacked, but so was Bentley and Penelope's. And worse yet, Penelope was captured by these fiends. I know how dedicated you are to being a cop, and so am I. trust me, I wouldn't be suggesting this if I didn't feel it was necessary. Despite having never lost my memory, I grew to really love being a cop, and being with you."

Carmelita stood up and began walking towards the hallway that lead to the bedroom. Sly's entire life seemed to flash through his mind all at once because of the tenseness of the situation. He remembered the murder of his parents at the hands of the Fiendish Five. Sir. Raleigh inflating himself, unable to be harmed, Muggshot firing his machine guns rapidly, his massive muscles proving impenetrable, Mz. Ruby using her creepy voodoo magic to daze Conner Cooper, Rosette Cooper, and McSweeny, Panda King encasing his hands in fire and throwing fireballs, completely setting the house ablaze, and Clockwerk laying the finishing blow on Conner, after which peering into the closet where Sly was hiding, his smug, evil expression plastered on his face. He spoke, but Sly can't remember what he said. This was the same nightmare Sly had every night, but it was rare for it to return to him when he was awake. He wondered why. Being overcome with these sudden tragic memories made it difficult to focus on Carmelita, who suddenly stopped at the entrance to the hallway. Outside, Bentley, Murray, and The Guru were eagerly awaiting Sly's answer as well. Bentley set a drone to the front window which had a super sonic listening device on it so they could hear the full conversation th rough a microphone extending out of Bentley's wheel chair. Carmelita suddenly shifted her head towards Sly, and had a peculiar smile on her face.

She released a sigh. "It's not like you'll take no for an answer, is it?

Sly gave his trademark cocky grin an rose to his feet. "You know me all to well."

"You're a strange man, Sly. We've been married for five years and I can still never tell what you're thinking, or win any of our arguments." She said. "I'm still not sure about this, but if you think this is the only way, then I'll trust that you know what you're doing." The two kissed each other on the lips. "So, where are your old pals located now?"

Um…they're outside." He admitted.

"Hm?" Carmelita gave an indistinguishable expression some would say she was impressed, others would say she was confused, and others might say something else. "They were outside the house this entire time?" Sly nodded and Carmelita chuckled. "You really are a strange man, Sly, managing to fool your own fiance like this. Always, you can let them come in, I'll go get changed."

Sly looked at his watch, and was surprised to discover that an hour had passed. He supposed that time must really fly when you're worried. He called for Bentley, Murray, and The Guru, figuring that they were listening in somehow, and in just a couple of minutes ,they arrived at the front door, Sly letting them in. It was only a few minutes later when Carmelita returned fully clothed. Her dark blue midriff-baring corset-type top that zips in the front, form-fitting dark blue pants, a choker which her Interpol badge hangs from, a light brown leather jacket and yellow gloves, a tiny ear ring in each ear, and on her feet are long dark-brown combat boots with steel toes and a golden Interpol star on top of each one. Her shock pistol was holstered by the left side of her waist.

"It's ben awhile, Cooper Gang." Carmelita exclaimed.

"Indeed, Ms. Fox." Bentley replied. "But this is no time for pleasantries, we need to go now before…"

Before Bentley could finish, the doors to the house barged open, and ten Interpol officers, led by Captain John Apallo Barkley. Each one were wielding shock pistols, and two of them kept an eye on one person, those being Sly, Bentley, Murray, Carmelita, and The Guru, Barkley being one of the two who was holding up Carmelita. Everyone was speechless, which gave Barkley a chance to speak.

"Captain Fox. I'm sorely disappointed in you." Barkley boomed with anger.

"Captain Barkley, what's the meaning of this?" Carmelita demanded. "What igves you the right to enter my homne without permission?"

"This." Barkley replied matter-of-fact, holding up a piece of paper. Stunnignnly, it was a warrant for the arrest of her, Sly, Bentley, Murray, and The Guru. "Sly Cooper and Carmelita Montoya Fox, y ou two are under arrest for conspiring with criminals and attempting to murder cops, not to mention the deception of making it look like you were victims as well. As for you three…well, do I really need to explain why you are going to prison?"

"Where's your proof?" Sly shouted in desparation.

"Well, I shouldn't need any more than the fact that ther'es three wanted criminals in your house right now." Barkley responded. "But if you must know, allow me." He pulled some papers out of his pocket with one hand, holding and pointing his shock pistol with the other hand, and continuing to speak. "Sly Cooper is the heir to the infamous Cooper Clan of thieves and used to work with the green turtle, pink hippo, and purple koala, and has been mascarading as a cop for five years."

"But you already knew that!" Carmelita cried in protest. "You're the one who allowed him to join the force."

"True enough, but he lied about having amnesia." Barkley explained. "I didn't think there would be any problem if he didn't remember his time as a thief, and my superiors and omrades at Interpol agreed with me, too." Both Sly and Carmelita gritted their teeth and continued to listen. "Next, there's Carmelita. Boy, do I have a tone of crap on you. There have been numerous times when you've illegally aided the Cooper Gang, which include, but are possibly not limited to, the final fight against Clockwerk, the battle against the KLAWW Gang, and the defeat of Dr. Morbius. Do you deny these allegations?"

Carmelita was truly stunned. How the hell did Interpol get all of this dirt? And this late, too. "Well…" Carmelita began, but had trouble continuing. Despite the circumstances at the time, she really couldn't deny what Barkley had sad was true. "I don't deny it, no. But the situations were dire. Can you honestly tell me you wouldn't have done the same thing to defeat Clockwerk of all people?"

"That's enough of your excuses, Ms. Fox." Barkley said. "If you admit to all that I've relayed, then we don't have any reason to continue talking. Men, place these five criminals under arrest."

Before they could obey, Bentley threw a few smoke bombs out of his wheel chair to obscure the vision of the cops and then shouted for everyone to head for the door. It took awhile for them to get out because they couldn't see any better than the Interpol agents, but they managed to refrain from getting captured until they succeeded, after which heading directly for Sly's black car. They all got in, Sly driving, Carmelita sitting in the passenger's side, Murray sitting directly behind Sly, Bentley sitting directly behind Carmelita, and The Guru sitting in between both Murray and Bentley. Bentley's wheel chair had to be shoved in the call all hap hazardly, and Bentley lamented when he heard something on his chair break. Murray wondered what they were going to do about the van, but Bentley assured them that they'd be able to return for it later and that they just needed to escape for the time being. Without wasting any time Sly skidded backward and sped forward out of the parking lot, traveling down the street and easily swerving between oncoming vehicles. Back at the house, Barkley ordered three of his fellow officers to search for more evidence, leaving no room unchecked or article of clothing unturned, while he and the others left to report back to Interpol headquarters. Sly kept driving for a few hours until they left Paris. If they attempted to hide out anywhere in that city, they would surely be discovered. The entire ride was quiet and tense. Nobody spoke because nobody knew WHAT to say. Carmelita was framed for being a damn criminal, not to mention a member of the Cooper Gang no less, the people she's been chasing for years. And the worst part is, unlike when the Contessa did this, Carmelita can't contest it, because Barkley does have applicable evidence, even though the situation was a bit more complicated than that. Once they left town and lost the pursuing cops Sly slowed to the speed limit. Before long he drove off the road and followed a path leading deep into uncharted, grassy plains. Eventually they came to a log cabin which Sly pulled u behind, after which everyone got out.

Carmelita was the first to speak, breaking the silence that had permeated. "Is nobody else going to ask it? Why is there a random log cabin on the outskirts of Paris?"

"We have secret ideouts in lots of locations you'd never expect, Carmelita." Bentley replied as Murray helped him back into his wheel chair. He wheeled around a little bit to confirm that he broken parts wouldn't hinder performance.

"How do you know they won't find it?" Carmelita inquired.

Murray located a small rock, picked it up in one hand, and tossed it with great force towards the road. Before it hit the street it exited some sort of mystical barrier; after the rock went through it, the entire thing briefly flashed. The force field circled for hundreds of miles around the log cabin, which means the only parts they could see were the one by the road and the one overhead. Bentley saw Carmelita's abashed expression and began to elaborate.

"Never underestimate our technology." He said matter-of-fact with a smirk. "And our mysticism, I might add. I simply combined a few devices I created with the magical powers of The Guru and a few of his subordinates from across the land to create this force field. It'll eternally cloak our presence, meaning we can see what goes no outside, but they can't see what goes on inside."

Sly spoke as Carmelita stood impressed. "It'll be a long trek to and from Paris, but it'll have to do."

"This cabin is only temporary." Bentley corrected. "For the time being we have to lay low until this blows over. I have several other locations in mind encase they find us, but hopefully that won't be necessary."

Sly walked over to Carmelita, who ha dher head held down in sorrow, and rested his hand on her shoulder. She looked up briefly and then shifted her eyes away from him and gave a huge sigh. She tried to turn and walk away, but he made a swift spin in front of her and grabbed hold lightly of both of her shoulders.

"You okay?" Sly inquired with a serious tone.

"Uh…yeah, I'm fine." Carmelita responded with a low, dismal voice.

"That's great, now tell me the truth." Sly replied sternly.

Carmelita, annoyed, raised her head quickly. "You want me to tell you the truth? Fine. My life has been thrown to complete shit in just a few hours. Not only did I find out that my cop boyfriend never really had amnesia like I originally thought, but I've been framed for being a criminal, and because of that I have to join the Cooper Gang. So tell me Sly, how exactly am I supposed to feel?"

"You should be pissed." Sly said. "You should be furious. But worrying won't get us anywhere." Sly looked over at his friends, who were pretending they didn't hear their conversation. "I know they're thieves, but you have to rely on them. Over the years I've built up a trust with those two specifically that nothing could ever surpass. If it wasn't for them, I'd be dead a hundred times over right now. We will make whoever is responsible for this pay dearly, weather it's Barkley, or if it's someone else."

Carmelita's began to water so she closed them, rubbing them, and then opened them back up again, plastering a slight smile on her face. "Y-you're right, Sly. Thank you." Her voice then suddenly went more stern, which is what Sly recognized and loved. "What I do know is that Barkley has nothing to do with this. I know my mentor, he wouldn't try to set me up for crimes I didn't commit."

"Glad you feel that way." Bentley exclaimed with excitement. "For the time being, however, I want the two of you to get some rest. Tomorrow, I'm gonna send Sly back to Paris to do some recon and you to do some illegal digging at Interpol headquarters."

"What about you, buddy?" Sly said with concern in his voice.

"I don't have any time to sleep, Sly." Bentley said. "I have to get a hold of a few of our contacts and group this together, I have a feeling that we're gonna need all the help we can get on this one."

Sly was going to stop Bentley, Sly knew that he needed as much sleep as the rest of them, but he couldn't proceed. For Sly knew deep down that Bentley was hurting more than anyone there. The woman he loved was captured, and he didn't know how long she'd be kept alive. Sly had no right to criticize him for overworking himself, and he knew it. Everyone entered the large cabin, and saw that it was split into six rooms. Murray took one, The Guru took another, Bentley took another, and Sly and Carmelita shared another, leaving two rooms empty. Carmelita, dismayed that she couldn't gather her night clothes before she left, laid down in the bed, setting her shock pistol underneath. She found it difficult to sleep in her work clothes, but Sly had no trouble, as he passed out almost immediately, being painfully deprived of almost a week of sleep. The Guru hardly ever slept; instead he sat on his bed cross-legged, laid his walking stick across his lap, and began to meditate, a mythical purple aura generating around his body. Most of the rooms were bare except for the bed, but not Bentley's; he required lots of technology in order to get things done. This included a desk top on one end of the room and a laptop on the other. His room was also missing a bed, but this was because his wheel chair was able to transform into a lounge bed for when he has to sleep when he's away from home. After Bentley shut the door, he immediately started typing on his computer, only stopping for brief snacks and drinks or to wheel over to his laptop. Off in the corner he had a mini-fridge which he kept stocked with tones of beverages and foods such as candy bars and sandwiches. Everyone was sleeping within an hour, except for Bentley, who remained working until morning, when he finally decided to call it quits and get some shut-eye himself. The sun was rising high into the sky when he finally nodded off. It was around this time that the others began to wake up, but they decided to let Bentley get some sleep because of how hard he's worked.

The time was 3:00 PM, and Bentley just woke up from a long, much deserved rest. After popping out of his shell, rubbing his eyes, and catching his bearings he pressed a button on his wheel chair to revert it back to normal, wheeled over to his computer to grab his glasses, and then left his room and the cabin, seeing that everyone else was already awake. Murray was lifting weights, The Guru was meditating, Carmelita was tinkering with her Shock Pistol, and Sly was just laying back in the grass and relaxing for awhile. He was the first to notice Bentley. He slowly rose to his feet with a smile on his face, grabbed his cane, and walked to his best friend.

"About time." Sly exclaimed jokingly.

"Yeah, sorry pal." Bentley responded. "Anyways, our help hasn't arrived yet?"

"Nah, it's only us." Sly confirmed. "By the way, who did you contact for aid?"

"You'll see soon enough, Sly."

The moment he said that, an unknown vehicle entered the barrier. It was a stylish red car that skidded around them, creating a large, black cloud of smoke which obscured their vision and made them cough. Without hesitation Carmelita pointed her Shock Pistol, Murray clenched his fists, and Sly raised his cane, but Bentley wheeled in front of them and told them to stop. Confused, they waited until their visitors exited the car, and were stunned by who they saw. Out of the driver side came Dimitri, that odd purple iguana, adorned in a colorful Hawaiian shirt and shinny jewelry covering his body including his extra long fingers, his extra long toes, ear rings in his ears, and a necklace around his neck. Out of the passenger's side came a heavy-set panda adorned in the flame-striped red pants and a blue sash around her waist and fireworks around her torso and back, plus a fireworks canon attached to her back. Seeing them the Cooper Gang relaxed and walked up to them. Dimitri was the first to talk.

"Yo bros, wats the haps? Yo call so me ansa see, it's da me to da tree to da three, hear?"

"Did you understand a word he said?" Carmelita asked.

"Nope." Murray answered matter-of-fact.

"Nothing knew here." Sly agreed. "Regardless, glad you could make it Dimitri. I figured you were one of the ones Bentley contacted, but whose that?"

"Beats me, bro. I was 'bout ready to ansa mu summons, and dis chic come knockin' on mu door, says she ansain' the call her fatha received." Dimitri explained.

Sly was still confused, so Bentley elaborated. "Welcome Jing King, happy to have you on the team."

"Jing King?" Sly replied. "You mean the daughter of the Panda King?"

"That's right." Jing confirmed. "My father is busy trying to recreate his empire in China, so he sent me in his stead. He didn't want me to come, but I insisted that I needed to pay you guys back for saving me from Tsao five years ago. I told him that he payed back his dept, but I haven't." Jing's voice was almost as commanding as her father's, but also had a hint of being gentle and delicate, a strange mix.

"So, is this all?" Sly questioned.

"Unfortunately, yes." Bentley lamented in a sad tone. "These are the only other two that we've worked with in the past, just substituting Panda for Jing, there's no way I was gonna try to contact the rest of the Fiendish Five and KLAWW Gang, and for some reason the rest of my contacts haven't been returning my calls. We'll just have to make do with what we've got."

"What's the plan, Bentley." Carmelita asked. "I want to get this mess over with as quickly as possible."

"Agreed." Bentley said. "First I want Sly to do some good 'ol fashion sneak thievery at Interpol, dig up some files, that sort of thing. We need to find out who set you two up, and for what purpose." Bentley turned to Dimitri. "They know what Sly's car looks like, so he's gonna need to use yours for the time being, is that fine?"

"Yeah yeah, I's suppose." Dimitri replied, grabbing his keys out of the ignition and handing them to sly who accepted them gratefully. "Be sure not to bang it up too much hear, dis beauty is one of a kind."

"I'll try not to." Sly responded sarcastically.

"Meanwhile, I have a few locations I'd like you to visit, Carmelita." Bentley continued. "With your investigative skills and jumping abilities it shouldn't be much of a problem."

Bentley handed Carmelita an orange binocucom, specially fashioned with her Interpol badge on it. He also handed her a different shock pistol, and explained that it's a newer model with a much faster reload and fire time, plus each shot will pack a much greater punch. Carmelita took her old shock pistol and stuck it in the glove compartment in her's and Sly's car.

"So what's my job Bentley." Carmelita asked.

"My satellites have come in contact with several key buildings." Bentley explained. "An old warehouse, a fancy mansion, and an armory. I know they're important because I saw a few high ranking cops, such as Captain Barkley, entering and exiting, and I think they're worth investigation. I've marked waypoints in your binocucom."

With their missions Sly and Carmelita left in Dimitri's car, speeding away, leaving a cloud of dust in their wake. The smoke caused everyone except for Dimitri to cough, and Bentley glared at Dimitri and cursed under his breath. Sly dropped Carmelita off at the fancy mansion, which was in perfect view of the Arc de Triomphe. Carmelita was positioned behind the house. She tried to advance, but Bentley stopped her, ringing in through a device in her ear. Carmelita asks how he gained access to Interpol's communication device, and Bentley responds by telling her to never underestimate his hacking abilities.

"Carmelita, my information detects several security cameras on this property. They're the best money can buy. If you step one foot on the grass or sidewalk, you'll be noticed, and soon after detained." Bentley pondered thoughtfully on the other end. "They do seem to have a week point. These cameras have 360 degrees of vision, but the bottom left corners appear to be their blind spots. If you can shoot them there, you should be able to deactivate them without detection."

"Roger Bentley." Carmelita replied. "I'm going in."

Carmelita placed her binocucom in front of her eyes and saw the so-called "waypoints" that Bentley mentioned. Through it appeared faint beams of light around each of the cameras, and the part of the cameras that were the weak points were darkened more. Without wasting any time she cocked her shock pistol and got to work. The street behind the mansion was empty of people, so that's where she began. The backside of the mansion had thirty cameras. They were rather small, but could amplify and magnify images and videos up to 20 times, as well as scan the entire area despite their size. They were basically military grade hardware, but Interpol did receive access to certain military weapons and other machinery a few years ago, and Barkley is one of the few cops that's able to have them on his person. Carmelita had no doubt about it, this was Barkley's home; while she'd never seen it before, he had described it to her. While the security was tight, Carmelita had no trouble dispatching the cameras on the back end, the left side, and the right side. The front side was a bit more trouble due to the cars zooming by constantly and people walking by occasionally. Carmelita had to make a run for it, shoot one, and then hide for a few seconds, and repeat that until all ten of them on the front were destroyed. After she was done she ducked into the nearby bushes as Barkley walked out of his house, clearly distressed. His eyes scanned the grass and street, after which he went back inside, slamming and locking the door. With the cameras gone, Bentley instructed Carmelita to go over to the window, which she did. She placed her Binocucom against the glass, which allowed Bentley to amplify its speakers so he could listen in. He did the same for Carmelita's ear device so she could join him. Barkley was sitting on a large couch that could fit five people, occasionally taking sips from a glass of wine. He pressed some buttons on a laptop in front of him, which caused a shrouded hologram to appear out of it.

"Barkley." The hologram said in a deep, muffled voice. Bentley could barely make it out, so he had to raise the volume a bit higher.

"Y-yes, my lord." Barkley replied skittishly. "How may I be of s…"

The hologram cut him off harshly. "Enough of this BS, you old dog. Why aren't Cooper and Fox in custody yet?"

"Please for give me my liege." Barkley pleaded. "But it seems we've underestimated them. With the aid of their thief friends they were able to escape, and we currently have no way of locating them."

"I expected more from Interpol, the International Police Organization." The hologram responded. "My plan will mean nothing if they're still on the loose."

"I assure you Overlord," Barkley insisted, "you can count on us. I've got Captain Rick under control, and he's the absolute best of us. Once I meet up with him, we will find the Cooper Gang, and we'll bring those bastards in dead or alive."

"Alive, Barkley!" The hologram demanded. "That's the only option. All will be for nothing if they die."

"Yes, of course sir, excuse me." Barkley said.

A few more seconds passed in silence before Barkley pressed a button on his laptop to shut off the hologram. He closed his laptop and then stood up and headed towards the door. The look on Carmelita's face was abstract horror. She couldn't fathom what she just heard, the possibility that Barkley actually did willingly frame her for crimes she didn't commit, and that he may have been working for some other criminal, it was unthinkable. Carmelita was lost in a daze, but Bentley snapped her out of it, reminding her that her mission was not yet over.

"Carmelita, I need you to take a picture of Barkley when he leaves his house." Bentley told her.

"A picture?" Carmelita responded, confused.

"That's right. I installed a camera in your binocucom. Normally only Sly is our picture-taker, but you're about as stealthy as him so I figured it'd be handy if you had one too."

Carmelita messed with a few settings in her binocucom, and discovered what Bentley was talking about. The screen that's normally used for recon changed slightly, bulging out in a funnel shape. Carmelita snuck around to the corner of the house as Barkley was exiting. Barkley was definitly cautious; after he shut the door, but before he left the steps, he scanned the area for thirty seconds, and as he walked occasionally continued to turn his head back and fourth. Carmelita snapped a quick picture, and then ducked back behind the house as Barkley spun all the way around, hearing the loud click. After a minute he continued on his way, getting into his truck, starting the engine, and driving away.

"Nice job, Carmelita." Bentley said. "Now, I need you to sneak inside Barkley's house. If you find anything interesting, be sure to snap a picture of it."

Without a word Carmelita did as he said. Bentley asked if he needed a skeleton key created, but without responding she easily picked the lock in about thirty seconds, after which Bentley complimented her and she entered, shutting the door so nobody walking by would get suspicious. Carmelita investigated the entire house. Barkley's mansion consisted of three floors. Out of that, it had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, (one on each floor), the living room, the dinning room, the kitchen, several long hallways, the basement, the attic, and the garage. In the living room she found Barkley's laptop. She opened it up and found extremely elaborate details about some plan. She attempted to take a picture of it, but Bentley instructed her to take the laptop with her when she's ready to leave, as the picture quality with the camera wouldn't be ideal. In the kitchen she searched every single drawer. She was loosing hope on finding anything, but did eventually see some strange yellow envelopes. After searching through them, she decided to take them with as well. She also saw a calender on the refrigerator with some peculiar dates marked on it, so she opted to take a picture of it. The last room she entered was the attic. The attic was made of rustic wood and looked like it was about to fall apart, with cob webs and spiders and other types of bugs everywhere, boxes stacked so high and unorganized that they seemed like they might topple over at any second. It didn't take long up their for her to find certain chemicals. The chemicals were all banned, and many of them included mercury in their composition. Even more distraught, she grabbed all the bottles she could find, put them in a nearby empty box, and then, after returning to the files and laptop, which she also put in the box, left the house.

"I'm done Bentley." Carmelita reported in after sneaking back behind the mansion again. "I've found everything I could and am heading back."

"Roger." Bentley replied. "Be careful Carmelita, the streets are getting busier now, and I'm sure everyone in Paris knows that you're a wanted woman by this point."

"Sorry to say, but I won't be able to take on the old warehouse with the heavy load I'm carrying." Carmelita told Bentley.

"That's fine." Bentley assured her. "Just head back to the hideout, I'll give Sly that last mission." He said the last part with a chuckle. "I figure he needs some extra jobs to brush back up on his skills anyways.

Sly pulled into a public parking lot, shut off Dimitri's car, and got out, commenting to himself how impressed he is with how good Dimitri's car runs despite the eccentricities of its owner. Sly latched his shock pistol to his waist, and gripped tightly to his cane. Interpol was still a ways away, but he didn't want Dimitri's car to be seen with him getting out of it, and hardly any vehicles were in this parking lot at the moment, definitely no people. When he finally got to Interpol, he found a pipe on the back of the building that he used to climb to the roof. There were five guards patrolling the roof, each one wielding two shock pistols with a flashlight on each one, and being very muscular, almost like body builders. Sly lamented to himself that Interpol seems to be finally upgrading their security. Sly was hiding behind the leg of a small water tower, it was easy with his small build. As soon as one of the guards turned his back Sly leaped out and smacked him upside the forehead, the only somewhat soft part of his body, knocking him unconscious, after which ducking below the roof's ledge, latching his cane onto a tiny hook. When the remaining four guards checked on their wounded comrade, Sly sneaked, leaped, and crawled around them, avoiding detection, and made his way up to the peak of the building, where he found an air vent. He used his cane to stretch the bars apart, and slowly crept inside. He jumped down the stall, avoiding any lasers on his journey, and then came to a long hallway. Sly hid behind a wall for a moment, realizing that his next move would be even more difficult. Interpol's offices were connected to several hallways, and each one had five guards patrolling. Sly noticed that one of them was Winthrop. When Winthrop turned to face Sly's direction he motioned for him to come his way. Winthrop began to walk in that direction, but another one of the guards stopped him.

"What's up, Constable?" The other guard inquired.

"Oh, uh." Winthrop stuttered for a moment. "I need to go to the restroom, you think you can cover my position until I get back?"

"Yeah, sure, but make it quick." He responded.

Winthrop slowly to Sly's position and, when the other guard turned his back, snuck behind the same wall, and the two began to whisper to each other.

"What are you doing here?" Winthrop asked in a distressed voice.

"I need your help." Sly said matter-of-fact.

"Help?" Winthrop replied. "I don't know if you've noticed, but you're an outlaw again, if I were to aid you…"

Sly cut him off. "Yes I know, but listen. What they don't know won't hurt them, I just need you to clear me a path to Barkley's office." Sly sighed before continuing. "We suspect that somebody intentionally set me and Carmelita up, and we have to find out who and why."

Winthrop looked thoughtful for a second, and then responded. "Okay, I'll see what I can do. I think setting off the fire alarm would work, but the firefighters will get here before too long so you'll have to hurry. That's all I'll be able to do for you to, because I'll have to leave with them."

"That's fine, thanks Winthrop, I'm counting on you." Sly said with a smile.

Winthrop went to the bathroom, because he did actually have to go, and when he returned he set off the fire alarm like he said he would, which also set off the sprinklers at the same time. Confused, all of the guards left the building. There was one guard left when Sly made his move, but the blaring alarm masked any noise he was making and the blinding sprinklers prevented the last guard from spotting him. After all the guards were gone Sly turned the sprinklers off and entered Barkley's office. Sly didn't waste any time, he flung open every drawer and cabinet he saw, throwing out papers and folders in disarray, until he found something interesting. A file marked with the name "Kamehameha" and a stamp of classification. He grabbed it, and was about to leave until a peculiar device caught his eye on Barkley's desk, something mechanical. Without thinking he grabbed that too, and then headed out. Sly was actually able to exit through the front door, because all of the cops were scattered around the building looking for the source of a fire that doesn't exist. Sly made it far away from Interpol just in time because the fire trucks were beginning to arrive, and the cops were regrouping, entirely befuddled. After Sly got back to Dimitri's car, which he was happy to see hadn't been tampered with or investigated, he reported in to Bentley.

"You there?" Sly said. "I'm done with my job. How's Carmelita doing?"

"She's done, but I'm gonna need you to check out the warehouse as well." Bentley informed him. "It'll take Carmelita awhile to return to the hideout with the heavy load she's carrying, it's all up to you buddy."

"Roger that." Sly replied. "Load the coordinates in my binocucom, I'll take care of it."

With that, Sly pulled out of the parking lot and sped away. A few minutes later he arrived at the warehouse, which was on the outskirts of town but on the opposite side of the hideout. Sly was able to park closer to the warehouse than he was to Interpol because of the lack of cars. The only other vehicles were a red pickup truck and a Black Sedan, and the warehouse was large enough for Sly to park next to it while still keeping considerable distance from them. When he was settled he got out, slammed the door, and found a way to sneak to the roof, where he found several skylights that allowed him to peer inside in secret. Far below was a curious sight, Interpol Captains Rick Warhead and Jim Coheed. Rick was a golden retriever, tall and muscular but had a low voice that didn't at all match his appearance. Jim was a Doberman, even shorter than Barkley, muscular, and had a thick mustache and beard that completely concealed his mouth, which muffled his voice, but his words could still be faintly heard. Sly took out his binocucom, turned on the same listening function that was in Carmelita's, placed it against the glass, and informed Bentley of the situation, after which remaining quiet so they could listen in. Rick and Jim were talking with a burly, muscular, tall rhinoceros.

"Rick, Jim." The rhinoceros boomed in such a demanding voice that Sly actually began to shiver a little. "I hope you bring results today."

Rick was intimidated, but Jim confronted him bravely despite his small stature. "Mr. Kamehameha, we haven't found Fox and Cooper yet, but we do have a few ideas on where they may be located." Sly quietly commented that he's sure he's heard that name before.

Jim nodded to Rick, and Rick hesitantly handed Kamehameha a paper that listed a few potential places. After looking it over for a few seconds, Kamehameha grumbled and glared at them. "Alright, this'll do just fine. In the meantime, the Overlord has another job for you two." He said his next lines with an evil smirk. "It'll be dangerous, though. Possibly suicidal."

"We are eternally committed to the Overlord's plan, Kamehameha." Jim confirmed. "Give us orders, and we shall obey."

"Excellent." Kamehameha replied. "Then your next job will require you to make a lengthy journey to Hawaii. Make sure to get ready in a week, you will have no more time."

"Understood." They both said at once.

"Sly, snap a picture of them before they leave!" Bentley radioed in.

Sly did as Bentley instructed. After they left in their vehicles, Kamehameha in the Black Sedan and both Jim and Rick in the red pickup truck, Sly snuck inside the warehouse through the front door. The inside of the warehouse was almost baron. There were a few vehicles, and tones of large machinery and boxes spread out everywhere, but the warehouse was so large that this still left an overwhelming amount of empty space. Sly took a few undisclosed pictures and then left, getting in his car and heading back to the hideout. On his way he found Carmelita who was still trying to get back. Sly pulled over to the side of the road, rolled down the passenger side window, and made a smart ass remark out the window, making fun of her obvious struggle, which caused Carmelita to humorously glare at him. He unlocked the doors, Carmelita put the box she was carrying in the back seat, and then got in the front seat. After that the two finished their journey back to the hideout, zooming through the force field that concealed it.


	3. Interpol

A/N: Here's the next chapter, the longest one yet. I'm thinking that the next chapter might be the last one in which the Cooper Gang will be going up against Interpol so I can move on from this soon! Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

 _ **Sly Cooper: Legacy of Thieves**_

 _ **Chapter 2**_

 _ **Interpol**_

Sly and Carmelita hastily returned to the hideout. Carmelita was exhausted because of the heavy lifting she had to do, but Sly was determined and eager to continue their mission, a burning desire gleaming in his eyes that Carmelita hadn't seen in many years. Upon entering the force field, all they saw was Bentley, who appeared happy to see them, rolling up beside the car as Sly parked it. Both him and Carmelita got out, Sly grabbed the box Carmelita acquired and taking it inside per Bentley's orders. In the cabin he saw Murray lifting weights, the dumbells so large that it made Sly's muscles hurt just by looking at them, and Jing King preparing her firework gear. Dimitri was absent at first, but appeared after Sly sat the box down, stepping out of his room, adorned in his green/purple diving gear and his harpoon gun. The Guru was also missing, but Sly found him inside his own room peacefully meditating, floating midway between the floor and the ceiling with his walking staff placed across his lap and purple smoke circling his entire body. Murray noticed Sly, after which throw down his weights, stood up, and walked over to greet him. Sweat was showering down his face and he grabbed a towel to wipe it off, after which slinging it around his neck, holding onto each end with both of his hands.

"What's going on Murray." Sly asked.

"Bentley has a job for each of us, so we've been preparing for action." Murray responded in an excited tone.

"He's right, Sly." Bentley replied as he entered the cabin with Carmelita at his back, Sly turning to confront them.

"What's the score?" Sly inquired.

"Well, it'll be a few more hours before we'll be able to leave, because I still need to inspect and analyze the information that you and Carmelita acquired. I have a few ideas, but I want to make sure my plan is correct before we head out. After all, I suspect that we'll be going up against all of Interpol in our quest to clear your guy's names, which will be one of the toughest jobs we've ever had."

"That reminds me." Carmelita said. "I've been wondering this for awhile now, but why do you care so much about clearing our names?"

"What do you mean?" Bentley asked thoughtfully.

"Well, I understand that the woman you love has been kidnapped, but why worry about us? You're Sly's best friends, wouldn't it make you more happy if he was able to rejoin your gang on a permanent basis?"

Everyone remained in silence for a brief moment. The silence got really awkward, really quickly, which caused Carmelita to glance around the room, wondering if she said something, but Bentley chuckled, giving her a reassuring smile.

"Perhaps, but would it make Sly happy?" Bentley explained. "I'm not gonna lie, being a thief hasn't been nearly as fun since Sly became a cop, but if he's satisfied with that outcome, then I want to defend it, no matter what."

Sly grinned, resting his hand on Bentley's shoulder. "Thanks pal, I appreciate it."

"Not to mention," Bentley continued, "while I can't prove it yet, I have a theory that the ones who captured Penelope are connected to the ones who framed the two of you, and that those we'll eventually intersect."

"Let's hope." Sly replied. "It'd be nice to knock out two birds with one stone."

"Agreed."

Murray threw his towel into a small white basket in one of the corners of the room and then grabbed a small circular folding table out of the closet in his room. Once he set it up Bentley pulled large blueprints out of his wheel chair and spread them out on the table. Murray, Sly, Carmelita, and Jing King gathered around to listen as Bentley explained the plan. Jing asked why the purple Koala wasn't here, but Bentley claimed that he would be able to read Bentley's mind later, and for now he was going to let him keep meditating.

"While this may be obvious by this point, but there's clearly been a conspiracy to frame the two of you." He said pointing his gaze at Sly then Carmelita has he did.

"And you think John, Rick, and Jim are involved?" Carmleita asked.

"Well, yes, but not intentionally." Bentley replied. "After you took a picture of Barkley, I used my computer to examine his face, and discovered a device on his ear. I recognize this device, it's an extremely advanced mind control device." Bentley took a deep breath and said his next words with a stutter. "I invented this device."

Everyone in the room glared at Bentley with varying confusion. Sly spoke. "You created a mind control device?"

"You never know when it would come in handy." Bentley defended himself. "The issue is, I have no idea how Interpol got hold of my technology, this has never happened before."

"Great, so all we have to do is get rid of those devices, right?" Carmelita suggested.

"Unfortunately, it won't be that simple. Those devices are more than just technology, with the help of The Guru I was able make them equal parts technological and mythical, which means first I'll have to hack them, and then The Guru will have to finish the job, but that will require us to get close first. We're going to have to take a roundabout path in order to complete this mission." Bentley explained.

"So what you got for us, pal?" Sly responded.

"First, we have the armory. Not far from Interpol's main headquarters in Paris is an armory filled to the brim with advanced weaponry. If we're going to make an assault on Interpol, we need to get rid of it. I'm giving that job to Jing King and Carmelita." Bentley pointed to a different spot on the blueprints before continuing. "Next is a job for Murray, Sly, and The Guru. After our recent actions, Barkley has requested the assistance of exceptionally skilled, military trained guards from overseas. They should arrive at any moment. Sly, you'll need to first pickpocket keys from them, as my satellites tell me that they have the keys to the armory, and then Murray has to take them out. However, they are extremely tough, so it'd be prudent for The Guru to use his dream time magic to put them in a daze first, which should hinder their skills." Bentley took a deep breath, and then continued. "Next we have you Dimitri I'll be sending you into the deep waters on the edge of the city and take out the marine defenses that Rick recently had set up. And finally I'll head out and commander a boat large enough to carry all of us by the loading docks. Some nearby businesses are having cargo delivered today, and I think we'll need the boat to make a quick getaway."

"What about the van?" Murray said with concern in his voice.

"Don't worry Murray, with any luck the boat I'll find will be able to haul the van as well, it's not uncommon for these supply boats to be carrying all sorts of heavy vehicles." Bentley assured him.

"I guess we should all head out then." Sly said.

"Agreed. Dimitri can take his own car, you and Murray can take the team van, meanwhile dropping me off at my destination, and Carmelita and Jing can take your guy's car."

"But…" Sly said, but Bentley interrupted him.

"I know what you're thinking Sly, but just trust me. Follow me outside, I'll show you."

Sly and everyone else did just that, including The Guru, who woke up when Bentley was explaining the plan. Murray pressed a few buttons on a control panel in the driver's side of the van, which made the entire thing transform. The Cooper Gang symbol, which was on the front, the back, both sides, and the top, were reverted to the inside; it appeared that the symbols were on some sort of mechanical panels that could be moved. The rest of the van, which was white, had a magical aura circle it, after which it turned into a black van.

"Impressive. When did you do this?" Sly inquired.

"Not long after you left." Bentley explained. "Murray remained with the gang for a little while, and we needed a good way to camoflauge it. It's actually technology that I was working on since years before the Cooper Vault job, but I only recently completed it."

"That's great and all, but what about my car?" Sly questioned.

Bentley lifted a small remote control out of his wheel chair, pointed it at their car, and pressed the large red button on it, which magically transformed it into a blue convertible with white stripes on either side and the top.

"I swear, sometimes I wonder if you're a scientist or a magician." Sly commented matter-of-fact.

"Actually, this is equal parts science and dream time magic, with help of The Guru." Bentley explained with a cocky smirk.

"You never cease to amaze me, pal." Sly replied.

"If you guys are done, I think we should head out." Carmelita said.

"Agreed. We all have our assignments. Remember, while we all have our own jobs to do, if you need assistance be sure to radio in, we're all connected via our binocucoms." Bentley said.

With that, Dimitri got in his car, slammed the door, and started the engine, Murray, Sly, Bentley, and The Guru got in the team van, Murray in the drivers seat, Sly in the passengers seat, and Bentley and The Guru in the back, Murray starting the engine, and Carmelita and Jing got in Carmelita's and Sly's car, Carmelita in the drivers seat, Jing in the passengers seat, with Carmelita starting the engine. After that, all three vehicles, after Bentley confirmed that the coast was clear, sped out of the force field.

Murray had the longest trip to make. He traveled to the other side of town to the docks, let Bentley out, and then left, soon after arriving at Interpol. Murray had to park a great distance away, after which the three got out and slowly approached. After awhile Sly told The Guru and Murray to stay put so he could go in and pickpocket the keys. This was the toughest stealth mission that Sly ever had to do, because the guards had amazing eyesight and motion sensors. Although shockingly the motion sensors weren't the best money could buy, because all Sly had to do is move slowly enough to not be detected, but it was still difficult, and stressful. According to his binocucom there were fifty of these guards in total, but only five that had keys. The first was by the front door, a burly bull dog with muscles bulging through his way too small shirt, a large flashlight in one hand and bazooka in the other. The guard would occasionally leave his post to check nearby areas where other guards were at. This was when Sly crept in to pickpocket his key. It took six attempts for Sly to reach the key. Afterwards Sly crept away and went to the second guard. Sly got a little nervous because the second guard was inspecting the team van. Murray and The Guru were still inside of it in the back and couldn't be seen because there were no windows in the back. Thankfully, however, the guard didn't think anything of it. As he walked away, Sly snuck up behind him and made a pull for the key. This time it took nine attempts to get the key. The third guard wasn't too far away from the previous. His back was out in the open, but he seemed really paranoid, because he was constantly shifting his head and turning his whole body around. While observing him, Sly noticed that his flashlight would occasionally flicker off for a few minutes, after which the guard would have to stand still to repair it. That's when Sly would strike. This time Sly only had to pickpocket three times to get the key. The fourth guard was the easiest to take care of, he was just patrolling like any normal guard. Plus, Sly only had to pickpocket twice to get what he wanted. The fifth guard, however, wasn't that much of a pushover. Sly tried to sneak up behind him, but before he could make an attempt for the final key, the guard turned around and knocked him away. Sly regained his bearings rather quickly and began running, after which the guard started shooting toward him like a madman.

"Murray!" Sly radioed in desperation. "I need your help, fast, I've been discovered!"

"I'm on my way, Sly!" Murray shouted with confidence.

Murray hopped out of the team van and rushed to his friend's aid. By this point all of the other guards were aware of the Cooper Gang's antics, but that didn't stop The Murray. With The Guru's aid, Murray managed to get passed dozens of guards, who were clearly much stronger than he was, so many that he lost count. One body dropped after another, until eventually he caught up with the guard that was chasing Sly. The guard turned to Murray, a cocky grin on his face, but his grin immediately shifted to a confused expression, and then an angry scowl.

"Potomus?" The guard exclaimed in an unhappy tone. "I never thought I'd see you again, you no good lying cheat!"

"Excuse me?" Murray responded. He was initially fired up, ready to fight, but these words caught Murray off guard, so all he could do was remain confused.

"Don't play dumb with me, you know who I am!" The guard boomed. The other guards, perhaps recognizing this fierce tone, backed off suddenly.

Before Murray could get another word out the guard started shooting at him instead. Murray was pretty slow, but he did manage to dodge every shot, albeit barely. Once he got up to the guard, he delivered a right hook to the guard's left shoulder. This sent him flying backward, tumbling to the ground, but he wasn't done yet. Loosing grip on his gun, he scrambled to his feet and delivered a punch to Murray's knee. Murray was visibly in pain, but he managed to stay on his feet. He jumped a few inches back and then unleashed a barrage of punches to the guard's chest. The guard was only able to block or dodge half of them, the other half putting him in so much pain that he couldn't stand anymore. The pain started at his chest, but due to the overwhelming strength of Murray's punches eventually spread to his arms and legs, sending him down. And this time, he didn't get back up. Murray, panting, confronted the guard with Sly by his side. His comrades tried to intervene, but he held up his hand, causing them all to stay where they were. By this point the other guards were surrounding the three of them in a large crowd.

"Not bad, hippo." The guard complimented, smirking to try and hide the pain he was in.

"First, who was this Potomus guy you mistook me for?" Murray asked.

"You really aren't him, are you?" The guard conceded. "Such a shame, you look just like him. I was hoping to get back at that guy."

"We have bigger problems right now." Sly said. "Guru, you know what to do."

The back of the team van flung open mysteriously and The Guru hopped out. After a few seconds of building up his dream time magic, he managed to put an aura of mystical energy around the guard, paralyzing him. A few of the other guards, realizing that their boss was in trouble, charged at Sly and Murray, but Murray easily put all six of them down, they were obviously much weaker than their leader. Other guards were about to approach, but Murray cracked his knuckles with an evil smirk on his face, and they backed off. Sly kept his cane out and grabbed his shock pistol just in case he needed them.

"You are really strong, hippo." The guard said.

"You haven't seen anything yet. Now, who is this Potomus guy?" Murray demanded.

"Let's just say he's an old nemesis of mine. That doesn't concern you, thief."

"It doesn't matter anyways." Sly suggested. "Once we leave here, The Guru will erase your memories of ever meeting us." Sly reached over, grabbed the final key out of the guard's back pocket, and then continued. "We've already got what we came for."

"I'm immensely impressed, Cooper Gang." The guard replied. "It seems we've underestimated you."

"Heh, everyone does." Sly agrees.

After that, Sly, Murray, and The Guru got back in the team van, The Guru raising his moon stone in the air. When he did a gigantic smoke cloud appeared in the area, which not only rput similar restraints on the other guards that was on the first guard, but also caused them all to pass out in a daze. Guru informed them that the guards should remain asleep for several days, and when they finally wake up they will have completely forgotten the Cooper Gang's interference. Murray drove the van quite a ways until he reached the armory. He let Sly out, informed him that he and his master would be heading back to the safe house, and then sped away, leaving a trail of dust in his wake. Sly ran up to the front of the armory and saw that Jing King and Carmelita were already waiting for him.

"It's about time, Sly." Carmelita exclaimed in annoyance.

"Sorry, we had a bit of trouble dealing with the guards." Sly admitted. "Anyways, let me take care of this door."

Sly used the five keys he stole to open the door to the armory. He commented how little security there was here, and Carmelita replied by saying that they probably thought it wasn't necessary due to the exorbitant amount of dangerous weaponry that they were storing here. Carmelita did notice a few security cameras, which she swiftly took out with her shock pistol; they weren't nearly as advanced as they could have been, Interpol was probably putting most of their money into the security of the main base and their random warehouses. The armory was massive, with tones of space, most of it filled with boxes and weapons, and tones of rooms and long corridors. It was like a maze, thankfully Carmelita anticipated this beforehand and Bentley was able to create coordinates in their binocucoms.

"Alright Jing, Bentley wants you to place some explosives." Sly explained. "We're here to protect you in case guards show up. We need to blow this armory sky high to prevent Interpol from using these weapons against us."

"Understood." Jing responded. "This job will be nothing for a fireworks expert like myself."

"Glad to hear it. Anyways…"

Before Sly could continue, an alarm began to blare and red lights flashed inside of the armory. The alarm was so loud that nearly all of Paris could have probably heard it. Carmelita looked out the door they entered and saw tones of Interpol agents running and driving their way. A few other also entered from different rooms in the armory. A couple of the guards managed to reach Carmelita, Sly, and Jing, but Jing took them by the scruff of their necks, spinning them around, and tossing them to the other side of the room, knocking them unconscious.

"Cooper, Fox." Jing boomed, sounding a bit more like her father. "Defend me! I need to place the necessary explosives, and I'll need concentration to do so properly!"

"Got it, get to work!" Sly exclaimed.

Jing began by approaching the wall near the back door. As she placed the fireworks, Sly and Carmelita remained close, using their shock pistols to eliminate the guards as they entered the armory. Most of the guards were terrible shots and really slow, which made them easy targets, but occasionally they'd encounter a guard that would be able to dodge shock pistol shots or reflect Sly's and Carmelita's shots with their own shots, but they still weren't that big of a problem, none of them were able to get close. After the first set of fireworks were ready, Jing moved to the wall on the left side, Sly and Carmelita following her. At this point, aside form the typical guards with shock pistols, guards with more muscles wielding machine guns began to intervene. The machine guns posed a bigger threat as they were much faster, even if the guards weren't. Sly and Carmelita had to do a lot more jumping, ducking, dodging, and swerving to avoid getting shot by them. Their shock pistols were also less effective, not always being capable of deflecting machine gun shots. They were mostly successful with this round, but midway through Sly got shot in the foot. It wasn't as serious as it could have been, but he still had to sit down and patch it up, which meant that Carmelita had to protect both him and Jing briefly. Sly pulled some bandages out of his waist pouch and tied them around his foot, making them extremely tight so his foot couldn't bleed out anymore. He'd have to wait until they returned to the safe house to properly clean the wound, so this would have to do for the time being. The process took two minutes, after which he joined Carmelita in defending Jing again, although he was much slower this time; he was able to walk on his foot, but it still brought him great pain, diminishing his skills a great deal. After the second set of explosives were done, Jing hurried over to the wall on the right side and repeated the process. This time, in addition to the Shock Pistol and Machine Gun guards, the three Captains Barkley, Jim, and Rick arrived, each of them wielding two shock pistols, one in each hand, drawn and cocked. Each of them had a different expression on their faces. Barkley had an angry scowl, Jim had a pleased grin, and Rick didn't seem to have any expression at all, as if he didn't care what was going on.

"Fools, you fell right into our traps." Barkley exclaimed. "The Master is going to be very pleased about this."

"Captain Barkley. As…turbulent as ever, I see." Sly joked.

"Sly Cooper. As…devious as ever, I see." Jim Coheed replied.

"Jim Coheed. As…short as ever, I see." Sly retorted.

As they were talking, Jing continued her job without a word, not wanting to waste any time. Seeing this, Barkley fired in her direction, but Sly deflected his bullets with his own with a cocky grin plastered on his face.

"I see your aim hasn't gotten any better." Sly taunted. "Now I see where your worthless guards got it from."

"This is the end, Cooper." Barkley said solemnly. "You have nowhere to go. This armory is currently surrounded by over 1,000 guards, on foot, in cars, and in helicopters, and there's more on the way. Just surrender now and don't embarrass yourself. If you don't, you won't survive."

"Don't be like that Captain, let's have some fun first." Sly responded.

Enraged by Sly's joking manner…a trait you'd think he would've gotten used to by now…he unleashed a barrage of shots, along with both Rick and Jim, which Sly and Carmelita were easily able to deflect. The ones they weren't Sly was able to reach with his cane. After the third group of explosives were set, Jing moved to the center of the armory. She only had to set one firework in that part of the armory, so it only took a few seconds. After that, the three of them realized that it was time to go. Sly, Carmelita, and Jing began fighting their way out of the armory. Jing was all out of fireworks, so she could only fight using her father's legendary techniques, namely Fiery Wheel, Booming Chop, Palms of Thunder, Fireball Projectiles, and Flaming Hands. Sly took out most of the guards, leaping high in the air, landing on their heads or with his legs around their neck, and bending their necks, sending them tumbling to the ground, occasionally using his Cane and his Shock Pistol for extra aid. Carmelita preferred to keep her distance, like usual, and snipe the guards, only advancing when she takes enough out. Jing, whose fastest method of attack without her fireworks was fireballs, preferred to get close. This did cause her to take a lot of abuse from the enemy's shock pistols, but she seemed to be able to take a lot of it, probably due to her large weight and build. It took 10 minutes of ferocious battle, but they eventually managed to reach the street not far from the armory. When they did, Murray came speeding their way. The back of the van was already wide open, which gave Sly, Carmelita, and Jing just barely enough time to jump in, Jing slamming the double doors behind them. The cops gave chase, but Murray pressed a few buttons in the van which caused it to turn completely invisible. Loosing the targets, they heard a loud explosion. Turning around, they realized that the armory was reduced to rubble and flames. The explosion also took out lots of nearby guards, cop cars, and helicopters, too.

"Damn!" Barkley growled. "We were so preoccupied with the criminals that we forgot about the explosives! I really hate that Cooper."

"Relax." Rick said, holding up a GPS. "We've finally acquired their whereabouts. It took some doing, but our hackers and lone mystic finally managed to outdo the turtle and koala. We'll have them soon enough."

All of a sudden a red pickup truck pulled up, and out of it came the Rhino, Kamehameha. There was someone in the passenger's side, but he couldn't be made out. Kamehameha glanced at the armory, entirely expressionless, and then back at Barkley, approaching him brashly. Kamehameha clutched his fist in silence, but Rick quickly moved his GPS in front of Kamehameha's eyes. He paused for a moment, and then an evil grin crossed his lips, his fists and muscles releasing from how tense they were.

"And here I thought you guys were completely worthless." Kamehameha's voice was so deep and booming that it commanded respect and obedience by everyone around him, no matter how big and strong they were. "If you don't mind…"

Kamehameha reached for for the GPS, and Rick fearfully released it. "I'm impressed. The Master is sure to reward you greatly for finally succeeding." Kamehameha frowned, but his voice didn't sound too sad. "With our armory gone we don't have nearly as much weaponry anymore, but it shouldn't matter now that we know where they're hiding out. I'll report back immediately." He turned around and headed back for his truck.

Jim, who was the only one who was seemingly not terrified of Kamehameha, spoke up before he left. "What about our pay?"

"The Master will wire it to you when he gets my report, don't worry." Kamehameha assured them. "In the meantime, get back to work. You still have jobs to do."

Kamehameha got in his truck, slammed the door, and sped away, a trail of pure black smoke left in his wake. He turned to look at the passenger's side, which is where a burly hippo sat, who had what seemed like a permanent scowl on his face, which directly opposed Kamehameha's smile.

"Can't you smile for once, Potomus?" Kamehameha scolded him. "Those idiot Captains actually managed to find where the Cooper Gang is hiding out at. They'll be dead soon enough."

"That's nice, but you don't really trust those cops, do you Tony?" Potomus questioned sternly.

"Nah, but they still seem to be more useful that I originally thought." Tony explained. "With this info we'll need to gather every available man we've got, and then ambush them. I know from personal experience that, no matter what, we can't underestimate these thieves."

"Please." Potomus responded in disbelief. "If the Master would just let me, I could kill all of those runts by myself."

"Uh, you sure you want to do that, Jerome?" Tony inquired with concern. "After all, your son is a member of the Cooper Gang. Or have you forgotten?"

Potomus glanced over to Tony with one eye and just glared at him. This glare seemed to even frighten Tony a bit, although he tried not to show it. "That boy is no son of mine. He's weak. Just like the rest of them."

"Yes, of course." Tony replied. "Well, I've certainly never met anyone as physically strong as you."

The two remained in an awkward silence for the rest of the drive. Due to the extreme mass of both Tony and Jerome the nearly filled the entirety of the front seat of the truck.

Meanwhile, Bentley was wheeling slowly and silently across the docks. When he arrived the docks were littered with guards, which is why he's been sneaking around for so long, but eventually most of the guards left. Bentley suspected that they were heading to the armory as he heard the alarm. This made him worry about Sly, Carmelita, and Jing, but he convinced himself that he didn't have time to worry about others, and that he had to remain focused on procuring a boat for their escape. It took several minutes as there were tones of ships, but he finally found one. Strangely it was an old fashioned wooden boat, but Bentley figured that this would be perfect. He began by sleep darting the five guards that were patrolling the docks near the ship and the three that were on the ship unloading items. Then, using his thruster pack, he landed on the ship, after which radioing into Sly to report his progress.

"Sly, come in!" He said.

"I'm here buddy, what's the score?" Sly responded.

"How about you?" Bentley replied. "I heard an alarm coming in the direction of the armory."

"Yeah, we were discovered, but we managed to get away, and the mission is a success." Sly explained.

"That's good. As for me, I just secured a boat, but it'll take me awhile to finish the job."

"Alright, just make sure to holler if you need any assistance." Sly said.

Bentley went over to the wheel, and saw five keys locking it in place, plus five more keeping the ignition off. Without wasting any time, Bentley pulled a makeshift scanner out of his wheel chair. He first used it to scan the locks in question, and then used that information to locate the guards that have the keys. Bentley spent time pickpocketing all ten of the guards, afterwards throwing a bomb in their back pocket to silence them. The pickpocketing took varying amounts of time, some of them just took one pull, others took ten pulls, others took twenty pulls. He had to pull out his fishing pull magnet very slowly, because if he didn't it would make noise and alert the guards. After he was done he returned to the ship and unlocked the engine and the wheel. After that he approached the sides of the boat and realized that it was attached to the docks by several wires. After experimenting with his bombs, he realized that they were ten inch thick bulletproof and bombproof wires. Because of this, he pulled out of his wheel chair a new invention, a special laser pointer. The laser pointer was able to effortlessly cut the wires. It put out so much intense heat that thick steam radiated from it rapidly, and it made Bentley sweat profusely within a matter of seconds. When he was done, he returned to the wheel, started the ignition, and began driving the boat.

"Alright Sly, I've got the ship." Bentley confirmed. "I'm going to bring it to the water that's closer to the safehouse, so it may take me a little while to return."

'That's cool, great job buddy." Sly responded. "Murray, Jing, and I are already back, so just take your time and stay safe."

Meanwhile, Dimitri was already by a different part of the docks. Adorned in his skin tight green and yellow diving shirt and very short shorts, diving fins that are mostly black with orange fins, a green diving cap, a small oxygen tank on his back, and a harpoon gun almost as long as his body. Without hesitation he jumped in with excitement, commenting to himself, like he usually does, that it's been years since he's gone for a good plunge. The water was incredibly difficult to see through due to the seaweed, abundance of tiny fish, and other nasty things that probably got in through the sewer system. To combat this, Dimitri pressed a button on his diving cap, which caused makeshift goggles to reach over and cover his eyes. Dimitri complimented "le turtles" work, implying that Bentley was the one who added this enhancement. The first group of defenses were underwater turrets, fifty in total, which Dimitri dispatched with relative ease. After he was done he had to quickly reload his harpoon gun, as it could only hold fifty shots at a time. After that he rose to the surface, and noticed surface-level missile launchers. The first fired at him. He barely managed to dodge, but saw that they could not only survive in the water, but also that they were heat seeking, which caused them to circle back around and target him again. Using his trusty harpoon gun, he fired at the missiles. It took two shots to destroy one, and what made it tougher was that many, way more than he could count, began firing at the same time, the burning flames behind them causing incredible steam to rise from the surface of the water. Anyone who had even slightly less swimming skills than Dimitri wouldn't have been able to successfully dodge the missiles when he's reloading his harpoon gun or trying to target different missiles. After all of the missiles were gone, Dimitri stylishly leaped out of the water, taking a humorous pose while in the air, and landed on a nearby ship. The ship was carrying five guards, but Dimitri easily took them out with one harpoon shot a piece. After that he spun around and destroyed all ten of the missile launchers on the water's surface, each one capable of firing two missiles.

"Hey dudes, dem guards n missiles seem gone." Dimitri radioed in. Not too familiar with technology, he spent a few seconds humorously fiddling with the communications device. "I tink…"

Dimitri stopped speaking suddenly. Bentley kept answering his call, but he didn't respond. On the horizon, Dimitri saw an undetermined amount of small speed boats with canons attached to the front and two guards in each, one in the back to drive the speed boats and one in the front to fire the cannons. They were coming at break neck speeds, which meant that Dimitri didn't have time to hesitate. He tried to get out of the way, but their cannons were too fast; they effortlessly destroyed the ship Dimitri was on and all of the nearby docks, sending Dimitri plunging deep into the water. It took him awhile to regain his bearings, but he had the time because the guards on the water's surface were under the false impression that they'd killed him. Each one of them parked their speed boats on various points of the water, intending to keep guarding this area. Dimitri began swimming very slowly. The purple Iguana was really skilled at making absolutely no noise even when in water which had a tendency to splash. Creeping up from below, Dimitri fired his harpoon gun and shot one of the guards who flew off into the water. After that Dimitri leaped out of the water and landed on the speed boat. He managed to decipher how to make it run, but not how to use the cannon, so he just kept using his harpoon gun. Dimitri sped away and the rest of the guards, which he could now count as nine, each of them bulldogs, gave chase. Once he got enough distance away he turned the speed oat around and managed to get off three shots of his harpoon gun before the others got too close, and each one scored a head shot. Dimitri was capable of dodging every cannon shot with his boat, but just barely, most of them were really close, and some of them even grazed his boat. As he fought water splashed up onto the boat getting it and himself wet. When he got his distance again he shot four times. The first two hit, but the third one didn't; the third guard managed to swerve out of the way, it hit his boat but he was still able to continue. Thankfully, the guard ended up swerving back in that direction again and got struck by the fourth shot, which was hidden behind the third one. In desperation one of the three remaining bulldogs reached for a hand held bazooka. When he fired it Dimitri was able to get out of the way, but when it crashed into the water, just centimeters away from his boat, the waters shook and waved so much to make his boat shake, and Dimitri was almost knocked off. Irritated, Dimitri shot two more times and hit the bullseye with each one. That's when the last guard confronted him, the one with the bazooka. The two started firing at each other rapidly, both of them missing every shot except for the last one. The bazooka shot knocked destroyed Dimitri's speed boat, knocking him into the water, but the harpoon shot took out the final guard. Dimitri remained under water for a few seconds just to confirm that he'd won, and then re-surfaced, swimming back to the docks which were pretty far away due to a good portion of them being destroyed. Dimitri sat on the docks with his feet in the water, splashing them around like an excited child as he radioed in again.

"Tis dun, bros." Dimitri exclaimed with joy. "Them stood no chance, see? I swim back to them digs now, hear?"

"Um, yeah, sure Dimitri." Bentley replied, pretending like he understood what Dimitri was saying. "Glad you're alright, and great job completing your mission."

Dimitri splashed back into the water and began swimming for the hideout at rapid speed. Some time later he arrived, running through the forest on the backside of the safe house; behind that forest was the large body of water that he swam through. When he got back, he saw Bentley, Murray, Sly, Carmelita, Jing King, and The Guru. They were all waiting outside for him with the door to the hideout open, both of the cars parked on the left side of it.

"Wats the haps, bros?" Dimitri inquired, taking off the large orange flippers on his feet, the goggles on his eyes, the oxygen tank on his back, and tossing them, along with his harpoon gun, in the back seat of his car. "Teh deed has been dun, wat we do now?"

"Excellent work Dimitri." Bentley said. "I was just informing the others that we're ready to make an assault on Interpol. All of my information tells me that the cops at Interpol are being controlled due to some technological, and possibly even mystical, force, so we'll have to set them free. But first, we need to take out this Tony Kamehameha guy."

"Who dis?" Dimitri asked matter-of-fact.

Sly responded. "He's a pretty famous criminal from Hawaii. Much to my shame, I've actually done business with him on thiefnet. I had no idea how despicable this guy was until now. He's unbelievably strong, Murray and Jing are gonna have to fight him, but even they will have to be careful."

Bentley continued. "That's correct. I'll let Carmelita and Sly fight Barkley, Rick, and Jim, along with any other cops that happen to intervene. I know there's a lot of them, but I'm confident in your guys' skills. In addition to that, while I don't have proof, I highly suspect that Interpol has some sort of mystic working with them. If we encounter any, it'll be up to The Guru to deal with him. Dimitri, I'm having you remain on standby and provide backup should anyone require it."

"Is hear ya, green turtle man." Dimitri replied.

"Let's go then guys! We need to finish this, before…"

Before Bentley could finish speaking, the barrier concealing the safe house disappeared all of a sudden. The Guru, who had been using an immense amount of his power to hold it up, flew back hard into a nearby tree, groaning as he lay on the ground in extreme pain. Without thinking Sly and Carmelita raised their shock pistols at the ten figures approaching, but two of them, Barkley and Rick, tackled and restrained Sly and Carmelita respectively, both of their shock pistols and Sly's cane sent flying. The Guru finally managed to climb back to his feet, but someone else confronted him, a strange wolf woman in a black robe with hazel eyes and long, black, partially curly hair. Murray clutched and raised his fists, but was knocked to the ground with one punch by Tony; after that, Tony and the other purple hippo confronted Murray, who gently rubbed both sides of his temples with his hands as he struggled to stand back up. Captain Jim Coheed just remained back with both of his shock pistols drawn. The other four figures were additional cops, each one covered in steal plated armor wielding a machine gun in one hand and a bazooka in the other hand. Jing King attempted to load her firework launcher, but Tony averted his attention to her and tackled her, ripping her firework launcher off her back and throwing it before the fireworks inside of it made it explode. While not attacked, Bentley and Dimitri were cornered by the four remaining guards, who just raised their hands up in the air in defeat.

The Guru was the first to speak in his own language. "Yorjup? You are part of this?"

"Please Master, are you that shocked?" She responded with venom in her tone.

"Sadly, no. Although I still didn't want to believe that my greatest student had fallen this far." The Guru responded with anger in his voice.

"Don't give me that, it's your fault." Yorjup responded. "And now, you'll get to see civilization and time as we know it collapse. And by the way, these days I go by Conquering."

Sly spoke up next, struggling to break free from Barkley's strong grip. "How did you guys know where we were at? And more than that, how did you break the barrier?"

"You can thank her." Barkley replied, shifting his gaze over to Conquering, who gave an evil smirk. "There's no wizard in this world greater than her. That, combined with Interpol's advanced technology, made it easy."

"Father." Murray said suddenly, getting everyone's attention, shocking them, after he finally reached his feet. "I thought you were dead."

"Boy." Jerome Potomus retorted, disregarding their blood relationship. "You thought I was dead because I wanted you to. And don't call me father again. It's disgraceful knowing that I'm related to a weak failure like you."

"Come closer, and you'll see how weak I am!" Murray bellowed, the though of being called weak enraging him.

As Jerome was about to do just that, Tony stopped him. "No Jerome, we have our orders. You can do what you want later."

After that, an extremely long, black limozeen drove up and several side doors opened. Jerome knocked out Murray, Tony knocked out Jing, Barkley and Rick knocked out Sly and Carmelita respectively, Conquering used her magic to knock out The Guru, and Jim knocked out Dimitri and Bentley. Before that, Bentley managed to hide some mysterious, unidentified device in his shell without anyone else being able to see it. After that, all of them were tossed in the limo, the ten Interpol officers got in the limo, slammed the doors, and the limo began driving away, leaving the Cooper Gang's hideout, vehicles, and gear, including Bentley's wheel chair, behind.


	4. The Path of a Thief

_**Sly Cooper 4: Legacy of Thieves**_  
 _ **Chapter 3**_  
 _ **The Path of a Thief**_

Almost nothing but silence reigned for a good long while. The only noise was screeching across what sounded like a tile floor, and muffled mumbling that couldn't me made out. And there was darkness. Sly was slipping in and out of consciousness. During the few moments that he was able to lift his eyes open he saw wolves hovering over him, taking him somewhere. But it never lasts long, and he couldn't move or speak anyways. All he could do was wait patiently for the inevitable. After awhile he stopped moving and he could faintly hear a door slam in the distance. Groaning in pain, Sly opened his e yes and noticed that he was restrained by tight ropes to a hard table. A strap was attached to both of his arms, both of his legs, and across his chest. He panicked for a few seconds, but calmed down as he began to understand the situation. The room was dark, save for a few candles in the corners, and his current lack of vision didn't help the situation. He tried to speak, but his words came out slow and stuttering.

"B-Bentley." Sly heard no response. Even though he just woke up he had a throbbing headache and lacked breath. "Where am I?"

"Sly?" Bentley replied. "Gimme a sec."

Sly could hear something land on the ground with a loud _oof_. After that there was a silence for a few more seconds, until the lights came on, Sly faintly hearing a click. The lights seemed old because they came on with a stutter and still weren't incredibly bright, one of them in the corner flickering every few seconds. Bentley was by the wall laying on the ground, struggling to crawl over to his wheel chair, which he spotted in the corner. It was hard to watch his buddy crawl on the ground like that, but he could barely move a muscle. Once Bentley finally reached his wheel chair he climbed into it. After dusting it off thoroughly, he wheeled over to Sly and quickly unfastened his restraints, using a hot, red laser pointer that he pulled out of his wheel chair. Once he was free Sly sat up; he tried to stand, but wobbled around and immediately sat down, using both hands to clutch and gently rub his temples. He observed the room they were in, his vision slowly adjusting to the ultra violet light, and saw six tables other than his own. One was empty, probably the one Bentley was on, and the other five had Murray, Carmelita, Dimitri, Jing King, and The Guru, all of which were still passed out. Sly slowly made his way to his feet and walked over to Carmelita.

"No scars." Sly whispered with a chuckle. "Say what you want about these guys, but they must be gentlemen at least." Carmelita and Jing have almost zero marks on them, but that definitely ca't be said for the guys.

"Glad to see you're feeling better." Bentley said, coming over to him. "I know you just woke up, but we need to focus. It looks like we're in some sort of storage room. However, the walls seem to be packed with lead. I suspect that this place was built a long time ago as a nuclear fallout shelter, but was later appropriated by Interpol. We can't get out."

Sly studies the door for a few seconds, and then responds. "If you have something really tiny and ridged, I might be able to pick the lock."

Bentley pulled a bobby pin out of his wheel chair and handed it to Sly, who walked over to the door and got to work. He bent over on his knees, his face, more specifically his left eye, up close and personal with the door knob, and began picking the lock. While he was doing this, Carmelita began to stir, and immediately started to panic when she got her bearings. Bentley broke her restraints and she leaped up from the table she was attached to; Bentley had to jump away so she didn't hit him. She reached for her shock pistol but, not being able to find it, she got even more frightened. After realizing she wasn't in any immediate danger, she lowered her hands, her breathing gradually slowing, and she plopped down on the bed she was previously laying on. She had lots of questions, but still found it difficult to speak, or to formulate the correct words. realizing this, Bentley moved on to Jing King's bed. Due to her hulking size, the guards had to use thicker restraints. Bentley figured out that they were ten inches thick. He could still cut them, but it would take time. Bentley asked Carmelita to stand by any guards came in. While she still didn't fully understand the situation,s he obeyed, realizing that it was dire. Bentley took 10 minutes to cut through Jing's restraints, and had to do the same for Murray. After that he moved on to Dimitri, and then The Guru, the latter of which being the quickest to solve due to The Guru's small stature. After Bentley finished, Carmelita, having had enough, finally spoke up.

"Can you please explain what's going on here?:" Carmelit'as voice was justifiably irritated.

"What do you remember?" Bentley inquired.

Dimitri replied. "We were planin' on da attack on da cops bro, but then WE got attacked! Mad dash for victory, but fail, now in prison!"

"That's...accurate, I think." Bentley said.

"Then, how do we escape?" Carmelita responded.

"Right now Sly is busy picking the locks, but it's taking some time." Bentley explained. "Unfortunately, aside from my wheel chair, as it's needed to get me from location to location, all of our weapons have been confiscated. YOur shock pistol, Sly's cane, Jing's bazooka, Dimitri's Harpoon Gun,a nd The Guru's Walking Staff and Moon Stone."

"Well that sucks." Carmelita stated.

"Done." Sly exclaimed excitedly, stunning everyone. "Now, let's get the hell out of here."

The door opened, creaking loudly as it did, but an alarm sounded suddenly. The alarm blared, echoing painfully through this enclosed metal prison without any windows. After that several holes opened up in the walls and turrets appeared out of them, modified with red sights above the guns. The Cooper Gang freaked out briefly, but before they could run away Bentley shouted for them to stand still.

"I recognize these turrets." Bentley explained, everyone doing as they were told. "they respond to movement. We can talk, we just can't move until they go away."

"That's wonderful." Carmelita responded sarcastically. "If that's the case how do you expect us to escape?" She gazed around their prison room and counted at least fifty turrets littering the walls. Each turret had one red sight and three guns attached to it.

"If an alarm's sounded, that probably means some Interpol agents are on their way." Bentley exclaimed. "Once they get here, they should turn the security off or they'd get shot as well. That's when we pounce."

Right on cue the alarm silenced and the turrets, while still visible, were clearly deactivated. The red light that was shinning throughout the room also vanished; it once shown from a red bulb that appeared out of the ceiling. Before they could move, Rick, Jimand Conquering entered the room, with Barkley visible behind them, keeping watch outside of their cell. Conquering was holding a staff with a black, circular gem attached to it with string and Rick, Jim, and Barkley wielded two shock pistols, one in each hand. Several other guards, wearing strange skull masks to conceal their identities, could be occasionally seen walking past in the distance.

"We should've known better than to underestimate you." Jim gloated. "Still, it doesn't mtter. We've come to retrieve Sly and Carmelita. The rest of you are't needed."

Gritting her teeth, Carmelita lunged at Jim. She managed to grab hold of his arm and push him up against the corner where the wall and the opened door connected, but Jim ducked down, slid under her arm, and twisted it around, pushing her down and pinning her to the ground. Despite his size, Jim was so strong that he could keep her in place while only holding onto her wrist. His thumb pressed hard onto her wrist, making her wince and shiver all over with pain. Sly was the next to move. Rick fired several shock pistols hots at him, but with Sly's stamina and acrobatics skills Barkley pointed both of his shock pistols directly at Sly's head, but Sly bent backwards and flipped over, kicking Barkley in the face, sending him down. He knocked the shock pistols out of their hands, far way from them, and then stood up, picking up two of their shock pistols and pointing them at them. hearing the commotion, a bunch of guards rushed to the scene. When Sly cocked his shock pistols they reluctantly lowered and threw down their guns, not wishing for their commanders to be harmed. Conquering, irritated, slammed his staff on the ground, which caused the black gem attached to it to glow a bright black and spin around the tip of the staff at rapid speed. After that a blackish purplish aura circled around Sly, Bentley, Murray, Carmelita, Murray, The Guru, Jing King, and Dimitri. The aura quickly turned to thick ropes that were mostly black with a purple tint, which squeezed them tightly. This caused Sly to drop both of his shock pistols he was wielding, and Barkley and Jim both stood tall, retrieving the shock pistols that Sly had stolen from them. Next Conquering snapped her fingers and caused a bright purple mist to circle Sly's and Carmelita's faces, which caused them to pass unconscious.

"Nice try Cooper Gang, but you still loose." Rick exclaimed with a cocky grin. "I twas a nice effort though, I am truly impressed."

Rick, Jim, Barkley, and Conquering left their cell, Carmelita and Sly, still binded, floating next to them, the steel door slamming, the restraints on everyone else immediately releasing once it did. The rest of the gang felt confused, disoriented, and frustrated. Murray was the first to stand up. He wrapped his arms around himself and squeezed his muscles, his massive brawn visibly in pain. Bentley, who was knocked out of his wheel chair when his restraints were released, had to slowly crawl back into it. Dimitri was able to sit up, but had to remain sitting down, leaning back against the wall; he was in the most pain due to him possessing the least amount of muscle mass. Jing King rubbed her muscle lightly; she was in the least pain due to possessing the most amount of muscle mass. The five remaining kept quiet for awhile, wondering how they were overcome twice in a row and contemplating what their next move should be.

"Of course, me decides to take a rain check on them sweet babes waitin' for me, message, jacuzzi, all dat stuff bros, and what I get for le generosity? Thrown inna prison waitin' to die!" Dimitri said, throwing his hands up in the air in frustration as he finished.

Murray looked over to his Master and realized that he was passed out on the ground. Strange, because Conquering didn't use any magic to make him loose consciousness. After that The Guru groaned loudly, gathering everyone's attention, and he suddenly woke up, his eyes popping open. He sat up and leaned against the wall, rubbing his temples wit his tiny purple hands.

"Guru, what happened?" Bentley inquired.

The Guru replied in his own language. "When the low level guards came to the scene of the commotion, I slipped into the dream time world without anyone noticing and put some of my magic on them. It should not be long now before they will return to set us free."

"That's excellent, Master!" Murray complimented him loudly.

"Yes, truly fascinating." Bentley agreed. "I'm even more surprised that Conquering, your former student, didn't catch onto your scheme.

The Guru responded. "That child has a long way to go she can best me. And let's hope for our sake that she never does."

Just as The Guru said, the door opened back up a few seconds later, and there was three tall, muscular wolf guards, adorned in armor and wielding machine guns. All three of them had a purple aura floating around their heads, signifying The Guru's control over their minds. One of them, in the hand opposite that he was holding his machine gun, held The Guru' walking staff with his moon stone attached to the tip with a tiny bit of string. The Guru walked over to him and retrieved his precious item. Another one held Dimitri's harpoon gun, which he also acquired. It was a little scuffed up and dented, but it would still function. The last guard had Sly's cane, which was still in pristine condition. Bentley grabbed the cane and stuffed it into his wheel chair for safe keeping. Bentley, Murray, Jing King, Dimitri, and The Guru grouped together and followed the three guards out of their cell and through the many hallways in the prison. Along the way they encountered many other guards. Most of them were also being controlled by The Guru, but ht ones that weren't were easily dispatched. The Guru, greatly weakened from having to use his magic to control so many guards, had to ride on Murray's back, his walking staff extended over Murray's chest. They eventually came to a certain guard who possessed Jing King's firework bazooka. Retrieving it, she set it on her back, and draped the restraint around her body, fastening them in place. She checked the launcher, and discovered that it was empty. Continuing on their journey, they eventually came to another guard, who had six fireworks. Jing acquired them and loaded them into her firework launcher. They eventually came to a dead end. Murray and Jing King used all the strength they had to push open a gigantic, metallic, double-door, which led them toa room filled with cops. They came in all different sizes, had weapons ranging from hand guns, to riffles, to machine guns, to missile launchers, and were species ranging from wolves, to bears, to lions, to tigers, to dobbermans. This room appeared to be a training ground, with a high tech shooting gallery positioned at the wall adjacent from where the Cooper Gang entered, punching bags placed all around both of the walls on either side, and a countless amount of humongous turrets extended from the high ceiling. when the door opened it let off an ear crushing screech, which caused every cop in the room to notice them, none of them being under The Guru's control. While not all of the guards that The Guru was controlling confronted him before he did, his mind control was able to pass on when the ones he did infect interacted with them. This means that those guards mustn't have interacted with these ones. Without hesitation the hundreds of cops raised their weapons, but were defeated in just a few minutes by the guards that The Guru was controlling, with the aid of Murray, Jing King, Dimitri, and Bentley. After that The Guru passed out, his magic power drained, and Murray, Jing King, Dimitri, and Bentley had to take out those guards as well, because the mind control faded away. After that only a few guards remained. They were about to continue attacking, but a loud, booming voice sounded from above, catching everyone's attention.

"Halt! Do not rush to your demise!" The voice exclaimed. Everyone looked up and saw Tony Kamehameha with an angry look on his face.

"Agent Kamehameha!" One of the two remaining guards shouted. "We did not expect you, sir!"

"And I did not expect to have to step in." Kamehameha lamented. "Still, I have a plan to finish these pests. Make your way for central intelligence immediately! Your service is no longer required!"

"Yes, sir!" They both said in unison.

The guards began to make their way for the open door in the room. Murray tried to stop them, but he was halted by several shock pistol shots, which gave the guards enough time to disappear. Before they could react, two cops landed in front of them. However, they were stunned, baffled even when they discovered that they were none other than Sly Cooper and Carmelita Montoya Fox, both of them wielding a shock pistol in each hand, and adorned in the standard black and blue Interpol uniforms. Carmelita's appearance seemed mostly normal, but Sly was giving off an expressionless, dead-eyed look, the exact opposite of his normal, playful and joking demenour.

"Sly? Carmelita?" Bentley exclaimed loudly.

They remained silent. Kamehameha gave an arrogant smirk and chuckle. He turned around toward a steel door, but briefly cocked his head back around to speak, his demanding voice booming, echoing across the entire room. "It's no use. Sly Cooper and Carmelita Fox belong to the Master now. And you won't be too far behind." With that he left, slamming the door behind him.

By this point The Guru had regained consciousness, his head lifted to visualize the situation, but he still had to ride on Murray's back. Murray clutched his fists in his fighting stance, Bentley grabbed some bombs out of his wheel chair, one in each of his hands and one in four mechanical arms that also extended out of his wheel chair, Dimitri aimed his spear gun, and Jing King claped her hands, igniting them in fire, and also took her unique fighting stance, which consisted of bending her knees, raising one hand high up behind her, and lowering the other hand to the level of her knee in front of her. All eight of them kept silent and motionless for awhile, just staring, attempting to read each other's thoughts. After awhile Jing made the first move, launching six fireballs, the next immediately after the previous. Sly, who was standing directly in front of her, was able to effortlessly deflect them with his shock pistol shots, but Jing flew high into the air, using the flame on her hands to propel herself upwards, and landed only a few feet away from him, both of her hands facing the ground. She shouted Palms of Thunder which, when her hands struck the ground, caused a quake of flame to spread out, engulfing both Sly and Carmelita. Noticing that Bentley, Murray, Dimitri, and The Guru were about to be harmed as well, Jing reached her hand towards them and did an approaching motion with her fingers, which caused that part of the flame to retreat and quickly dissipate.

Bentley hurried over to Jing's location, palnting from exhaustion. "Be careful! We don't want to hurt them!"

"My apologies. My flame techniques are stronger than my fathers, but I currently have less control over them." Jing explained, seemingly out of breath. "Still, they betrayed us. Why do you desire to protect them?"

"Not a chance!" Murray cut in, walking next to them. "Sly would never turn against us, we're his friends!"

"Agreed, and I feel Carmelita is the same." Bentley elaborated. "While that vixen isn't too keen on us, she loves Sly, which is why it's very unlikely that she'd make a move against us."

Before they could continue their conversation, Sly and Carmelita rose back up to their feet. They once again began firing their shock pistols, Sly, Murray, Jing King, and Dimitri scurrying around aimlessly so they don't get hit. Being directed by Bentley, Murray, charged towards Sly and tackled him, his hands restraining his arms and his knees restraining his legs, both of his shock pistols flying out of his hands far away. Carmelita, concerned, tried to go in their direction, but Jing King knocked her over, sending her shock pistols flying, and preventing her from moving a muscle. After that The Guru hopped off of Murray's back and landed on his feet. He was still rather slow, not yet fully recovered, but he was good enough to use his dream time magic. He raised his walking staff and moons tone in thea ir with one hand and moved the finger sof the other hand around every which way. A purple smoke appeared in the air around him, Sly, and Carmelita, his moon stone began spinning around the tip of his walking staff rapidly, and his head briefly shrunk to a tiny size. The Guru was moaning as he activated the spell. Sly and Carmelita continued to struggle, but it was no use. After a few more seconds of resistance, they fell unconscious, their eyes turned purple. Murray and Jing King stood up and everyone grouped together.

The Guru was the first to speek in his own native tongue, after briefly looking over both Sly and Carmelita. "Just as I thought. They're both under some sort of mind control. While it is partially mystical, I, for some reason, am having difficulty lifting the spell."

"Maybe you're still too weak?" Murray innocently suggested matter-of-fact.

"Not likely." Bentley corrected. He walked over to Sly, bent over, and received a device that was in his ear, holding it up for everyone to see. "This is powerful mind control technology. It's yet another one of my inventions. It's almost flawless by itself. It's the reason that Penelope and I were able to undertake so many daring thefts all by ourselves. However, if mixed with a powerful magic, there's no telling what it could accomplish."

"It's very likely that the magic was implemented by Conquering." The Guru added.

"I agree." Bentley said. "We won't be able to turn Sly and Carmelita back to normal again until we defeat her."

"Can't you just destroy the device, Bentley?" Murray asked.

"Yeah, drop on le ground n SMASH, easy peasy bros!" Dimitri agreed.

"sadly, it's not that simple." The Guru explained. "The magic Conquering used isn't dream time magic, but it's black magic. And not only that, but an extrapowerful black magic which cannot be done away with simply by destroying whatever it happens to be attached to. Once she used the spell on the device and these two put them on, the spell bonded with them internally, to their very souls."

Bentley continued. "It would have been difficult even for her to do normally, due to their extremely strong wills, but the tech gave it the extra push to completely brainwash them. That's why we need to strike it at the source."

"That sounds fine, but we cannot very well take them with us on our journey through this facility." Jing King exclaimed. "How do you suggest that we proceed?"

Bentley responded immediately. "Murray, Dimitri, and Guru, I want you three to stay behind and protect Sly and Carmelita. The Guru will need to make sure they remain unconscious, and Murray and Dimitri will have to defend all three. Undoubtedly when Tony finds out that we're chasing him and that we split up, he'll radio for tons of guards to return to this room. Jing, you and I will continue down the path."

"You guys gonna be okay alone?" Murray questioned.

"It'll be tough, but I think we can manage, as long as Jing follows all of my orders. Is that agreeable?" Bentley said, turning his attention to Jing.

"Of course!" She said, loud and proud. "My father had complete faith in you turtle, so I shall do the same. Plus, you saved me years ago, so I owe you. Just lead the way."

"Excellent, let's go then!"

Jing King used her flame to propel herself to the higher ledge that Tony was once standing on. Bentley reached that height was two mechanical arms that protruded out of his wheel chair. After that, Jng King spent some time prying open the door in front of them, which was so difficult it caused her to sweat slightly, and then the two proceeded. It wasn't long before they were met with the resistance of more guards, which Bentley and Jing...but mostly Jing...were easily able to dispose of. They kept coming, but they were no match for Jing's blazing fire and Bentley's crippling bombs. This part of the building was like a maze, with countless hallways that look exactly the same, and an endless amount of doors that lead to completely random locations.

"Maybe we should go our separate ways." Jing suggested. "We may be capable of covering more ground if we are not together."

"No." Bentley shout down that idea." "We can't afford for the two of us to get captured, too, and it'll be much harder to prevent that if we aren't in the same place."

"But the corridors are so huge." Jing lamented. "I spent much of my childhood training in the Kunlun Mountain, traversing them with ease, and even I'm getting anxious and tired right now."

"I doubt this place is as large as Kunlun." Bentley said. "It's probably just becuse our friends are captured. I eel the same way as you, and I'm sitting down."

Bentley tried placing his bombs on the walls, but was dismayed when he discovered that they weren't able to even scratch or dent them. After awhile Jing and Bentley came to a dead end with a door. They opened it up and entered, after which they were shocked to discover that they were outside. Before them was a bright jungle that seemed alive and busy. The trees were so tall and plentiful that the sun was only able to barely peek through the branches and the leaves, and it was littered with countless wild animals, some of them typically dangerous sand aggressive, but none of them were attacking Jing and Bentley. A light wind blew, causing the leaves of the trees and nearby bushes to ruffle, and birds were making noises every which way. Jing gazed off to the left and Bentley gazed off to the right, both of them befuddled. Bentley looked thoughtful for a moment, and then pulled out his dart gun and shot a grazing lion with a sleep dart. As he expected, the lion disappeared. When the sleep dart hit the ground the trees, grass, the sun, and all of the rest of the animals flickered for a few seconds, but they didn't completely disappear.

"Just as I thought." Bentley said.

"I have never been more confused." Jing responded.

"It's basically a holographic projection." Bentley explained. "I'm unsure if it's being projected with technology or if Conquering is using her magic."

"A little bit of both." A booming voice said from afar.

Both Bentley and Jing looked up, and saw a gigantic black ape which fell from the sky, making the ground tremble as it crashed onto the ground, once again making the holographic projection flicker again. The ape was more than twice the size of Jing King, his imposing figure hovering above her as he turned around. Startled, Jing jumped back and raised her hands, coating them in flame. The gorilla just mocked her, with a laugh and gripped his massive hands around her, effortlessly squeezing the life out of her. Jing flexed her muscles and wiggled around in an attempt to break free, but it was to no avail. Her hands were still on fire, and were touching the ape's skin, but it wasn't affecting him in the slightest. Bentley popped a bomb out of his wheel chair and threw it at him. It exploded on his back, but he just continued to grin. His attention was shifted to Bentley, but he was still able to keep holding onto Jing. Turning his head back to Jing he realized that her strength was lessening due to exhaustion, so he threw her across the fake forest. She landed on the ground, her firework bazooka and the firework inside of it flying a great distance away from her. Bentley hurried to her location. He helped her to her feet, but she was a pain and remained slightly hunched over. The scuffle caused her hair to be revealed. It was long, silky, and blond, and was previously perfectly and entirely hidden inside of her thick wardrobe. The gorilla lowered down placing his front legs on the ground and just continued to stare at them for awhile before Bentley spoke up.

"Mind if I ask who you are?" Bentley inquired.

"Jeremiah." The gorilla replied in a low tone. "And you idiots have been causing a lot of problems for us."

"That's what we do best." Bentley joked, wheeling towards him slightly before stopping.

"Not for long." Jeremiah retorted. He stood up straight, towering above Bentley and Jing, clutching his fists and continuing to give a cocky smirk. "The Cooper Legacy is about to come to an end. Capturing an controlling Sly and Carmelita was just the start."

"Hate to break it to ya, but that's not gonna happen." Bentley said. "Our mystic is far greater than yours. Our friends will be back on our side before too long."

"Oh really?" Jeremiah responded.

Before they could say any more, Bentley received a call on his Binocucom. He opened it, and Jeremiah, still confident, let him do so. After a few moments, Bentley retracted his Binocucom, his facial expression immediately going from pleased to distressed. Jing, who normally kept an unassuming expression, looked worried, and Jeremiah's grin only got wider.

"What did you do?" Bentley inquired angrily.

"I didn't do anything. My associates did." Jeremiah corrected. "You've made three mistakes right now. The first is assuming you've won when you still have enemies to defeat and are clearly behind. The second is underestimating the power of Conquering. And the third is misinterpreting the situation. It's more than just magic, their mind control is equal parts magic and technology."

"I know that." Bentley replied. "But I hacked into them and deactivated them!"

"And that is your fourth mistake." Jeremiah countered. "Did you really think we were that dumb to make a move without acquiring a technological genius that could easily rival you, Bentley Mordecai?"

Meanwhile, Murray and Dimitri are running around the room they are in, avoiding countless shock pistol shots from Sly and Carmelita. The Guru was still on Murray's back. Despite this, he still appeared to be more recovered than before, due to his better controlled breathing, his capacity of having a more tight rip on his walking staff, him having a purple smoke hovering around him so he'll be ready for when he needs to attack, and his eyes carefully analyzing their attackers. Dimitri, visibly frightened, was continuously firing his harpoon gun at rapid speed, cursing under his breath due to each of his shots being effortlessly deflected by shock pistol shots. Sly and Carmelita remained expressionless throughout the whole ordeal, and there was never a moment when more than five seconds went by between shots from their shock pistols. What made it more difficult for Murray, Dimitri, and The Guru is that when shock pistol shots hit the wall's they reflected from one wall to another, and each reflected shot was not only much faster than normal shots, but could also reflect for up to an entire minute per shot. The purple smoke which had previously been circulating around Sly's and Carmelita's heads had disappeared. Back at the fake forest, Jing scrambled around to retrieve her firework bazooka and all of the fireworks that spilled out of it. Bentley used his bombs to prevent Jeremiah from stopping her, although the bombs just barely managed to keep him back due to his overwhelming mass, strength, and speed. Afterwards Jing continued to use her fireworks to combat Jeremiah, but all three of them stopped fighting when Bentley got another message on his Binocucom. When he pulled out, he realized that it was from an anonymous source and he was unable to trace it. After that, Bentley answered the call.

"H-Hello?" Bentley said in a low, nervous tone. He had never acquired a call that he couldn't trace before,s o he was understandably scared.

"Don't worry Bentley. Sly and Carmelita will be set free before too long." Unlike usual there was no face on the other end, just a voice, but Bentley was certain that he recognized that voice.

"P-Penelope?" He said in disbelief.

"Who else?" She replied. "I swear, you're hopeless without me."

"What's going on?" Jeremiah boomed.

Penelope chuckled at him. Her voice also ringed through the communications device in his ear. "Sorry you dumb ape. But you should never underestimate the Cooper Gang."

While he seemed confused at first, Jeremiah quickly regained the grin on his face, lifting his left hand up to his ear and resting it against the communications device. "I see. You're one helluva mouse, braniac. Still, don't think that means you've won."

"Of course not." Penelope exclaimed. "Unlike you, we don't count our chickens until they hatch."

"Penelope, where are you!?" Bentley inquired desperately.

"I'm in Monaco." Penelope answered. Through their communications device Bentley could faintly hear typing on a computer.

While Bentley understood everything, Penelope would occasionally break up and back again. "What's wrong with your voice?"

"Sorry, the technology here isn't the best." Penelope explained. "I need to mask my exact location, but i can't do that with recent computer and software, so I had to go retro."

"I guess that means you won't tell ME the location, then?" Bentley said.

"Yeah, that 'bout sums it up." Penelope confirmed. "Don't worry though. When you manage to leave Paris, just head to Monte Carlo. I have some associates here who will locate you."

"That's all well and good, but getting out of here is the problem." Jing responded. Both her and Bentley prepared for another assault by Jeremiah.

"That's where I come in." Penelope exclaimed cockily.

All of a sudden, far to the right of the door where they entered, another door appeared. It seemed to be concealed by the forest illusion. While most of the illusion remained, a small section of the wall was revealed. The door that appeared opened automatically. Bentley and Jing reacted instantly, hurrying towards the door. Jeremiah attempted to stop them, but several turrets reached out of the ceiling and shot in front of him.

Penelope, this time her voice over the intercom in the building, chuckled wildly. "Better luck next time!"

By then Bentley and Jing were no where to be found, but that didn't stop Jeremiah. When the turrets retraced, he sped along running on all fours for maximum speed. Despite his immense speed, Jeremiah was incredibly skilled with making sharp turns and never going out of control. He was able to effortlessly navigate the endlessly complicated maze After Jeremiah was long one, Bentley and Jing appeared out of thin air, moving away from the walls that they were backed up against, motionless. After that Murrya, Sly, Carmelita, Dimitri, and The Guru circled the corner. Bentley and Jing appeared defensive at first, but quickly learned that Sly and Carmelita were back to normal, so they lowered their guard. Bentley took some time explaining the situation to the others, which didn't do anything to cease their confusion.

"Monaco?" Murray exclaimed.

"That's correct." Bentley replied. "She not only told me her location, but she gave me information on how to save Interpol."

"That's great, pal." Sly responded. "So...how?"

Everyone began running down the corridors, Bentley leading the way while looking at his laptop. After awhile they finally exited the prison. They were in direct view of the Eiffel Tower. Sly and Carmelita immediately took the lead, raising their shock pistols. Before they could react they heard a bellowing scream from above. When they looked up they saw Jeremiah, hollering like a maniac, plummeting down to the ground, making the earth shake as he landed. he turned around and glared at them, clutching his fists tightly. Just as he did, Jim, Barkley, Rick, Potomus, Tony, and Conquering, along with a whole legion of other cops, arriving at his aid. Rick, Jim, and Barkley raised their shock pistols, Tony and Potomus clutched their fists, and Conquering started wiggling her fingers around to create an aura of magic around herself. All of the other guards aimed their various weapons, from shotguns, to shock pistols, to machine guns, and their cars and helicopters surrounded the entire building. The Guru was the first to make a move. He stepped forward, slamming his walking staff onto the ground, and caused a gigantic aura of purplish-black magic energy to envelop the land. The result was mot of the guards collapsing to the ground and Jim, Barkley, and Rick still conscious, but kneeling down in pain, struggling to remain so. Tony, Potomus, Jeremiah, and Conquering were seemingly unaffected by this.

"Was that...black magic?" Conquering asked, intrigued.

"More specifically, it's a combination of both black magic and dream time magic." The Guru responded. "I may not be a fan of black magic, but I do know it, and am willing to use it if I feel it's absolutely necessary. I'm not stupid.

"Perhaps. But the fact that you rely on dream time magic still makes you weaker than me." Conquering insisted.

Jeremiah charged forward while growling loudly, but Sly, Carmelita, and Dimitri fired at him simultaneously, causing him to jump far back, Sly, Carmelita, and Dimitri following him. Murray and Potomus confronted each other, clasping their fists together and began pushing against each other, their muscles bulging. Jing launched some fireworks at Tony. He took a direct hit and few back but landed on his feet. Conquering and The Guru remained in place. They refrained from moving a single muscle, but were obviously fighting, waging an invisible battle in their minds using their magic, their fists clutching and their eyes squinting, magic energy surrounding them, their moon stones levitating and spinning around their walking staffs. Bentley was able to effortlessly hack and doge attacks from Jim, Rick, and Barkley. He would first use the turbo boosters in his wheel chair to send himself far away from the action. As he travels, he commences typing on his computer. He keeps doing this even after he stops until his three opponents catch up with him. Once they do he continuously repeats. They would occasionally fire when they get in Bentley's line of sight, but Bentley is able to let on the adrenaline burst so quickly that the shock pistol shots don't even come close to striking him. When they got further away from The Guru's location his magic began to wear off, which allowed the three cops to go faster and focus harder, and as they got back closer to him again his magic began taking affect again. After a little while Rick and Barkley collapsed to the ground next to the gigantic group of guards which were knocked out previously, but Jim strangely remained on his feet. Bentley went over to them, retrieved the devices in their ears...there was one in each ear, making six in total...and threw them on the ground, shattering them to bits. By this point most of the fighting had come to an end, with very little combatants still able to continue. Murray and Jerome Potomus seemed mostly evenly matched. While Murray was hunched over and Jerome was able to stand tall, they still delivered a similar amount of blows to each other, with similar strength levels, almost taking turns in their attacking. Murray was sent to the ground, hard, via a left hook, when he got distracted by Bentley's victory. While Tony Kamehameha was stronger than Jing physically, his muscles weren't infinitely more durable than that of fireworks. Due to this, and the fact that Jing was able to continuously fight from a distance, Tony was eventually defeated. The final strike was a combination of fireworks from her bazooka and two gigantic fireballs that she fired, one with each hand. Tony rose slightly, but was in significant pain, so all he could do was kneel down, both fists clutched, one in front of him and on resting on the ground, breathing heavily. Even after all this time that had passed, The Guru and Conquring were seemingly unaffected, unmoving, and even unbreathing, although Bentley could tell by looking deep into their eyes that they were both struggling tremendously. Their silence suddenly broke when Conquering released her breath, panting with great stress, falling hard on her back, her walking staff leaving her hand and rolling a small distance away from her. The Guru was able to remain on his feet but still tipped, turned, and shook, so Murray lifted him up on his back, The Guru thanking him. The only combatant who was seemingly unharmed was Jeremiah. He stood tall, gloating at his three opponents. He threw another punch, which would have struck Sly directly in the face, possibly killing him, but Murray and Jing raced between them and used their hands to catch his fist. Jeremiah's fist was so big that all four of their hands just barely managed to wrap around the front, top, bottom, and sides of it. Even with their combined effort, Murray and Jing still slid backwards. Sly, Carmelita, and Dimitri quickly got out of the way, after which Murray and Jing grazed the prison building with their back/s before they managed to completely stop Jeremiah in his tracks. Using all the remaining strength they possessed, they lifted Jeremiah up in the air and threw him many feet away. He landed roughly on the ground, rolling several times, and then quickly got to his feet again. He was only slightly scuffed up from the assault, while Murray and Jing fell down, leaning their backs up to the prison building.

"You've become a thorn in our side." Jim exclaimed angrily. His normal cocky facial and voice expressions had gone rather sour, but his voice was still as low as it normally was.

The rest of the Cooper Gang seemed confusing, but Bentley appeared to understand perfectly. "I see. So you weren't being mind controlled after all. You're just corrupt."

"Corruption is such a harsh word, turtle." Captain Coheed responded. "I just felt like being on the winning team."

"Does it look like you're winning anymore?" Bentley replied.

"Why yes, it does." Jim answered. "Jeremiah, Potomus, and I are still perfectly fine, and even those who were defeated are still capable. And even if we fall, the Master has countless minions at his disposal. Don't underestimate his might."

"Who exactly IS this 'Master'?" Bentley inquired.

"I can't say too much." Jim lamented. "He's a mechanical, technological, and psychological genius. He is an absolute criminal mastermind who has factions and secret bases all over the world, in every major country, and even many smaller countries. And he has countless different aliases. He cannot be stopped."

Jeremiah, Tony, and Jerome regrouped with Jim. The three of them were ready for combat once again, but a loud helicopter flew overhead. it first dropped several bombs, which blasted apart the ground. Jeremiah, Tony, Jerome, and Jim managed to leap out of the way. Jim fired his s hock pistol at the chopper, but wasn't able hit it as it escaped much quicker than a helicopter should be expected to.

"I thought you said they didn't have any other allies!" Tony demanded venomously.

"I was certain!" Jim assured him. "No matter, it seems to be gone. A foolish effort to save these pitiful lives. Anyways, we should..."

Taking advantage of the distraction, Bentley began hurling bombs at their three adversaries. His friends took the clue and started to run away. Once they were out of sight, Bentley followed them, occasionally turning around to throw more bombs in an attempt to keep their assailants far behind them. Jeremiah, Tony, Jerome, and Jim soon caught up to Bentley, but they were cut off by shock pistols hots, soon revealed to be fired from Rick and Barkley. They landed between them and Bentley. Without saying a word Bentley understood the situation and began moving, not stopping or even so much as glancing behind himself for any reason. After awhile Rick and Barkley caught up with Bentley, and it wasn't long after that before the three of them caught up with the rest of the party. It was only a few minutes later when they arrived at the safe house. All nine of them entered through the back door of the team van. Murray got to the driver's seat, Sly on the passenger's side, Bentley, Carmelita, and Jing by the back left windows, and Rick, Barkley, The Guru, and Dimitiri by the back right windows. Murray started up the van and immediately sped away. As the team van exited the barrier that was supposed to conceal the safe house, The Guru released that barrier, because they definitely wouldn't be able to hide there anymore.

"Head to Interpol." Barkley said in a gruff voice.

"Shouldn't we get the hell out of Paris?" Carmelita inquired.

"yes, but I need to acquire some important files from my office first." Barkley explained. "They'll be needed to clear your name."

"You think you can?!" Carmelita cried out.

"Possibly." Barkley replied. "I don't want to get your hopes up, but we can't pass up this opportunity. After I have the files, I'll explain to you everything that I know about this 'Master.'"

Everyone remained in silence for several more minutes until they arrived at Interpol. Murray parked behind the building, directed by Barkley, to a secret location that even Jim, and honestly most of the cops at Interpol, doesn't knw about. When they got out, Barkley clapped his hands fifty times in a row in rapid succession. He paused for exactly five seconds, and then repeated. he did this six times in total. After that, the seemingly normal grey concrete wall began to react. A door was revealed, not that different from the classic revolving bookcase, and everyone entered. After a couple of minutes traveling through a long, winding corridor, which included both long, baron hallways as well as steep stairwell,s they entered Barkley's office, through a secret passageway in the floor underneath of Barkley's desk. Bentley, due to his wheel chair, wasn't able to traverse the steps,s o he had to remain at the bottom, but Murray remained with him, so that he could protect him should the need arise, The Guru still on his back. Without wasting nay time Barkley rummaged through all of the drawers in his office, unsure as to where he put the files. As he did, Carmelita, Sly, and Rick plugged their shock pistols into outlets to charge them up, setting them on various desks. The lights were dim, which caused Barkley to have to grab a flash light in order to see into the deepest corners of the drawers. After awhile he found what he was looking for. he pulled out three folders from a drawer close to the floor near his office door. He went to the largest desk with the most space and spread the folders out on it, which revealed a bunch of papers littered with text as well as a bunch of pictures of the Cooper Gang and each of the former villains that Cooper Gang have faced in the past.

"What is all this?" Sly inquired matter-of-fact.

Barkley sighed heavily, resting his hands on his desk. "This is all of the information that the Master has gathered on your exploits. And unfortunately, my fears are true."

Carmelita noticed some peculiar photos of her, pointing at th em. "Why are there images of me helping the Cooper Gang."

"Because part of their case includes every time that you've aided Sly Cooper and his crew." Barkley responded in a sad tone. "The biggest instances are during the Clockwerk, KLAWW Gang, and Dr. M. instances, but there have been several other.s And the Master, allegedly, has detailed information about every single one of them. On top of that, he has countless copies of the evidence, placed in different bases all over the world, so even if I destroy these ones, it won't matter."

Sly spoke up, obviously angry. "She only helped us because it was necessary! I mean, Clockwerk? The KLAWW Gang? Dr. M.? Can you really blame her for wanting to do anything possible to take those monsters down?" He looked at Dimitri, who gave him a cross glare, and grinned. "Uh, no offense, man."

"Perhaps." Barkley replied. "But INterpol disagrees. People far above me. Even I and rick don't have the autority to overturn these decisions, or argue against them in any way."

"You mean their decision to send out a man hunt for us?" Carmelita exclaimed.

"That's correct." Barkley explained. "I have spent the past two years trying to uncover who the Master was with nothing but failure. Me and Rick decided to not inform you two about it, as to prevent you from worrying to much or doing anything irrational."

Rick continued from where Barkley left off. "That's not all."

He reached into the files and pulled out a strange calling card. It looks almost identical to the Cooper Gang calling cards, except it has three red stripes , one between both of the eyes, and two from the tip of each of the eyes to the top of the calling card. The inside of the eyes, rather than white, was black.

"That's not one of ours." Sly said.

"I know." Rick responded. "I did a cross analysis of this versus the ones that you guys typically use. While I don't think you guys would make slight, insignificant changes to your famous calling cards, that's the logic that Interpol is using."

"Great." Sly lamented. "So not only are Interpol and this Master after us, but some other thief organization?"

"Possibly." Rick replied. "Either that, or it could be this Master trying to set you up, or some 'inside man' within Interpol being the culprit."

"So we're screwed, basically." Carmelita said.

"Unless you can find a way to clear your name, yes." Barkley agreed. "And so are we now. We were originally planning on pretending like were still mind controlled, but we soon realized that Bentley wouldn't have been able to escape without our help, so we had to expose ourselves."

"So, do you want to come with us then?" Carmelita suggested. "I know it's not to appealing to be running with a gang of thieves, but I can't see any other option. Plus, I know from personal experience that the Cooper Gang are exceptionally skilled at escaping from the authorities and keeping hidden."

"Thanks for the offer, but I have to decline." Barkley denied. "Me and Rick will remain in Paris. We have a secret base we developed just in case the situation got this dire. WE can keep in contact, but our business still remains in this city, at least for the time being."

Rick collected the files and handed them to Sly and Carmelita. "Take these. Keep them safe. They might come in handy in the future."

Before they could continue, they heard rumbling outside of Barkley's office. Flashlights shone, and a loud, booming voice could be heard from outside of the building, ordering everyone inside to come out with their hands up and surrender. The door to Barkley's office flung open, but everyone was already gone, having exited through the same secret passageway from which they entered. Their assailants followed. The group quickly made their way back to the bottom. When they did, they saw Bentley and Murray hastily fighting off guard,s struggling to keep them away from both the team van and the door to the building. Sly opened up the back of the van, and everyone piled in. Murray was the first, to give him enough time to start up the van, and Bentley, Sly, Carmelita, Jing, Dimitri, The Guru, Rick, and Barkley followed. With everyone ready, Murray sped away in a hurry, the countless cops chased them on foot, inc op cars, and in helicopters. Murray plowed up and down the streets, skillfully swerving in and out of tight alleyways and away from oncoming vehicles. The top speed he reached was 90 miles per hour, and a huge trail of black smoke streamed from the smoke stack on the back. Murray was being directed by Rick, who as sitting in the passenger's side seat. They eventually arrived at a specific coastline, the closest location they could possibly drive to the Eiffel Tower. Murray pulled over and let Rick and Barkley out of the van.

"So...where is this base of yours?" Sly asked.

"It's underneath of the water." Rick responded. "very few people are aware of this, but the island that the Eiffel Tower is attached to has a secret base built inside of it, and the entrance is near the bottom of this body of water."

"Will you be able to hold your breath that long?" Murray questioned in concern.

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Barkley replied with a gruff laugh.

"Part of Interpol's standard training course is swimming." Sly explained. "High up Interpol agents like them are some of the best swimmers in the world. It's for this reason that you can't become a Captain in Interpol if you are't able to hold your breath for an incredibly long amount of time."

The black double doors of the van shut again, and Murray once again sped away as Barkley and Rick dived down into the water, swimming hastily to the bottom. It didn't take much more time before the Cooper gang exited Paris; by this time, their Interpol assailants were far behind them, so Murray slowed down the team van greatly, matching the posted speed limit, which was just 50 miles per hour.

"So, we're heading to Monte Carlo?" Murray asked.

"That's right." Bentley confirmed. "Penelope told me that she's being held in Monaco, so we have to go there to save her."

"That's all well and good, but do you know how we'll find her?" Carmelita inquired.

"Yes, she sent me coordinates to some sort of Casino." Bentley explained.

"A casino in the city of casinos? Who woulda thought?" Carmelita responded, sarcastically.

"No, I know the exact casino." Bentley said. "I've already put the coordinates into the van's GPS."

"Man, nothing makes any sense." Sly exclaimed. "We have Penelope who is, for some reason, hiding out in Monte Carlo, we have this Master whose trying to frame me and Carmelita, and there was that one helicopter who briefly dropped bombs to help us escape from Interpol."

"Yeah, about that." Bentley cut in. "I got a good look at it and did a cross analysis. It appeared to be an Interpol chopper, which is strange because Interpol is against us, unless there's an agent who was able to secretly resist the mind control."

"honestly, that's more terrifying than anything else." Sly lamented.

"I agree, but first we need to go to Monte Carlo." Bentley insisted. "I'm sure we'll find some answers there."

As they continued to travel, a mysterious silhouetted figure could be seen watching them from behind a tree. Sly shifts his head, catching a glimpse of him, but the figure disappears, and Sly faces his head back forward again, ignoring it.


	5. Casino Town

_**Sly Cooper: Legacy of Thieves**_  
 _ **Chapter Four**_  
 _ **Casino Town**_

A black minivan sped down the streets of Monte Carlo. The Cooper Gang was in the minivan. Murray sat behind the wheel near the right hand side windows, and The Guru and Dimitri sat near the left hand side windows. Everyone gazed out the window as they passed several famous landmarks. Murray slowed down as he entered the city so the cops wouldn't start chasing them. They stared in awe at the Saint Paul Angelican's Church, Place du Palais, Prince's Palace, and finally Monte Carlo Harbor. During their journey all seven of them remained in silence for the majority of it. They were all lost in deep thought. Bentley pulled out a picture of Penelope from his wheel chair, gazing upon it strongly, his face expressing a mixture of sadness and eagerness. After awhile he put it away, took out his laptop, and began typing rapidly. Carmelita tinkered with her shock pistols. Jing King was sleeping, leaning back against the window. Murray was looking ahead, blankly. Sly gazed out the side window, the window down, his elbow out the window seal and his fist resting underneath of his chin. The Guru was meditating, levitating slightly up in the air. And Dimitri occasionally shifted his head aimlessly, his harpoon gun laying on the floor beside him. The sun was beginning to set over the horizon, so Murray quickly flickered the headlights on. Carmelita eventually broke the silence.

"Where are we headed?" She asked.

Bentley responded as he continued typing simultaneously. "According to the information that Penelope has given me, we should stop at Monte Carlo Harbor. Some of her associates should arrive to greet us."

"Look, I know you trust your wife, but why does she trust people she doesn't even know?" Carmelita inquired. "If I end up in prison, I'm going to be pissed."

"Prison would be the least of our problems." Sly cut in. "If we get caught around here, chances are that it'll be the Russian mob. They control these parts, with the law enforcement only giving a false sense of safety.

"I've been wondering the same thing Carmelita, but I'm not too concerned." Bentley responded. "Penelope is far more intelligent than me when it comes to analyzing a person's character."

As they talked, Murray pulled into Monte Carlo Harbor. He parked in one of hte parking spots near one of the docks. This spot, unlike most of them, didn't have a sign next to it with a number, meaning that he could park here as long as he wanted to. Jing woke up, The Guru snapped out of his mental daze, and everyone exited the van, slamming the doors behind them. Sly and Carmelita spent some time stretching their legs, arms, and backs, and Bentley slowly wheeled around the nearby docks, scanning the area. The waters were filled with both large ships and small wooden jolly boats, but the land was almost entirely vacant.

"This is odd." Murray said. "It's not dark yet, I would've expected to see more people."

"Do you know this place?" Carmelita questioned.

'Yeah, one of our earlier jobs, even before we took on the Fiendish Five, took place in this very city." Murray explained. "It was awesome! We went to the casino, with forged ID's of course, we ate the incredible food, and I took part in the Monaco Grand Prix. I'd wanted to return for a long time, but never thought that one of our jobs would lead us here again."

"You can have your fun if we have time Murray." Bentley said, wheeling over to him. "But do remember that finding Penelope and clearing Sly's and Carmelita's names comes first."

Before they could continue, three lions, each one wielding a blunderbuss with a flashlight attached to the ends, approached them. Murray was the first to notice them. After he did, he clenched his fists, Sly and carmelita raised their shock pistols, Sly raised his cane, Bentleyg rabbed some bombs, Jing King clapped her hands causing them to be coated in fire, Dimitri pointed his harpoon gun, and The Guru caused magical purple smoke to surround his body.

"Hold it!" One of the guards shouted. All three of them raised their guns just in case they had to fight. "Are you the Cooper Gang?"

"That's right." Sly responded, his fighting stance raising a tiny bit, his voice low and unsure. "And who might you be?"

"Penelope sent us." Another guard replied. "we're supposed to take you to the casino."

"Casino?" Bentley said in confusion.

"Don't ask questions." The third guard demanded. "If you want to see your friend again, just follow us, quietly. And be quick about it, the situation is urgent."

"Do you trust these men, turtle?" Jing King questioned.

"No, but we really don't have much of a choice now, do we?" Bentley lamented. "Besides, Penelope did say that she'd send some armed guards to locate us, so I don't see any reason to argue."

The guards turned around, and began walking, using their guns to light the way. The Cooper Gang put all of their weapons away and lowered their guards, following silently. Murray suggested that they take the van, but one of the guards explained that the part of the casino that they're going to doesn't allow vehicles, and assured Murray that it would be safe at the docks. When they finally arrived at the casino, about thirty minutes later, they saw a whole bunch of people entering and exiting. However, so to avoid being detected, because Interpol probably made their names well known at this point, they snuck around to the backside of the casino. As they walked, Murray was visibly amazed. He looked up, marveling at the height of the casino, which seemed to stretch infinitely in all directions. It was covered from top to bottom on all sides with priceless gems and lights, the latter for the purpose of helping guests see at nighttime. As they ventured further and further into the back alley, it got darker and darker. Soon, the only lights remaining was that of the flashlight guards. Bentley, who was traveling much slower than everyone else so he could have a look around and analyze the area, extended a mechanical arm out of his wheel chair and had a bright light attached to it. They eventually arrived at the door, which one of the guards unlocked and opened. Everyone entered, and that same guard shut the door and locked it tight. The guards and Bentley turned off their personal lights, and one of the guards flicked on the light in the room. they appeared to be in some sort of storage center, cabinets, cardboard boxes, and metal shelving lining all of the walls. the room clearly needed a new paint job, because the ceiling and the few portions of the walls that could actually be seen were chipped all up and looked awful. the guards and the gang continued. With every room they entered, one of the guards turned on another light. After spending awhile heading through several more rooms and hallways, they arrived at the last room. It looked much better, with many guards sitting down at tables either reading books, drinking drinks, or eating food, and a bunch of broken casino machines placed by the walls. Everyone was astounded, it was like they were in a completely different building. One of the guards in the room stood up and greeted them.

"What you got here?" The guard, who wasn't carrying his gun, said to the three who entered the room.

"The boss told us to collect these guys." He said.

"Don't ask don't tell?"

"Don't ask don't tell."

"BENTLEY!" A female voice shouted with great excitement.

Penelope rushed over to him and gave him a big hug, bending over so she could reach. Bentley extended his minuscule arms as far around her as he could. His facial expressions shown of happiness, but also shock, plus a distinct lack of breath. He pounded on her back a new times. She soon understand what he was saying and released him, giving him a peck on the cheek. Finally, Bentley was able to get a good look at his lost lover. She looked the same as always. she was just slightly shorter than Sly, with dark blue laced boots and light blue suspenders that stretched from her ankles all the way up her body, the straps wrapping around her shoulders and underneath of her arm pits. Her hair, long, silky, and orange, was tied ina gigantic ponytail, dangling down her back. She had a red bandanna on her head, and wore giant, circular, coke bottle glasses. She had a crooked expression on her face and appeared stressed out.

"Penelope?" Bentley said with great relief. "I didn't expect to find you so soon!"

"I told you I'd send men to pick you up." Penelope replied witha a chuckle.

"Yes, you did, and I am truly grateful." Bentley said.

"That's not important now." Penelope insisted. "All of you, follow me, quickly. There's someone I want you to meet."

After that, Penelope started to lead the way. They made their way through several more baron, dimly lit rooms and hallways, until they arrived in a room that looked like an office. There were pictures of tigers littering the walls, a desk in the center with a chair behind it. Besides the door they entered there was only one other door, attached to the wall to the left side of the desk. Beside the desk was a large, plexiglass window, and out the window they could see the Casino floor, countless patrons spending their hard earned money on a chance to win even more, and guards patrolling every inch of it, the guards ranging from lions, to tiger,s to bears, to wolves, to coyotes, among others. Penelope hollered a world, Angel, several times in a row. After that there was silence, and then the second door flung open. from it walked a large, muscular, female tiger. She was as tall as Dimitri, the tallest member of the Gang, and was about as muscular as Murray, with a facial expression that could not be read no matter what. Penelope stood in front of them. She tried to speak, but the tiger cut her off.

"Are these your friends, dear?" She asked.

"Yes Angel." Penelope confirmed. "This is the Cooper Gang. Sly Cooper, Bentley Mordecai, Murray, Jing King, Dimitri Loutsteau, Carmelita Montoya Fox, and The Aboriginal Guru." As she introduced them, she grazed her fingers across the air, pointing at each one in order.

Angel scowled at Carmelita. "I'm not to keen on a cop being in my Casino." She said in a deep Russian accent.

"And I'm not to fond of running with a gang of thieves, but life sucks." Carmelita responded without missing a beat.

Penelope looked nervous, but Angel burst out laughing. "Yes, I suppose it does. Anyhow, if you are friends of Penelope, then you are friends of mine. She has been quite the help these past few weeks."

"Are you the one who kidnapped her?" Sly inquired.

"No, she's the one who saved me." Penelope explained. "I was kidnapped by the Master and his organization."

"Do you know who he is?" Bentley asked.

"No." Penelope lamented. "Nobody does. he rarely acts himself, and whenever he does he always wears a robe to conceal his presence."

"I take it you have business with this Master too?" Carmelita exclaimed, addressing Angel.

"Yes, unfortunately." Angel replied. "His syndicate is currently at war with my own."

"Syndicate?" Murray said in confusion.

"Uh, yeah, Angel here is the leader of hte biggest Mob Syndicate in all of Russia, known as the Angels of Death." Penelope explained, earning her a scornful look from Angel.

"As she said." Angel confirmed. "I'm at the forefront of organized crime in this entire country. But now this Master wants to take me down. For what reason, I can't imagine."

"Well, criminals to tend to make lots of enemies." Carmelita suggested.

"Anyways, she saved me from those savages, with the condition that I use my RC and computer hacking abilities to help her fight against the Master." Penelope explained.

"Why didn't you let me know?" Bentley asked.

"Because it was too risky." Penelope explained. "I wasn't able to conceal my location, while trying to find out where the Master is hiding, and contact you without possibly giving up mine and your locations. However, when I heard that you were in imitate danger, I got desperate."

"Well, at least you're safe, that's all that matters." Sly stated. He then turned his attention to Angel. "So, you want our help to deal with this Master?"

"Well, considering that we're both having trouble with him, I figured that we could aid each other." Angel responded. "If Penelope trusts you, then so do I. I'll allow you access to most of my facility. My casinos, my warehouses, you name it. I've also sectioned off a hideout for you, because it's too dangerous to allow you to stay here. If any of my patrons knew I allowed an infamous gang of thieves in my casino, then I'd be ruined."

Penelope took Bentley's binocucom, took it over to a computer, and began typing. She took a cord, plugged one end into the binocucom, and another into the computer. "I'm download the coordinates of not only your safe house, but also the locations that you are and aren't allowed to visit."

"Are you not coming with us?" Jing King asked.

"Unfortunately, no. Angel still need my assistance here. I'll be fine, though, and since you're so close we'll be able to keep in touch."

She handed Bentley back his binocucom, and Angel called for a couple of guards to escort the gang back to their van. Before they could leave, she handed each one of them a red card. "If you want you can play at my casino. These cards allow for unlimited credits. I hear you're great with disguises, so I trust that you won't get caught."

"You have been informed about us?" Sly said with a smirk.

"Well, yes...but also, I do research on anyone that I enter a partnership with." Angel explained with a smile. She gazed for a brief moment at Murray, then shifted her gaze away from him.

"One more thing." Sly said, pulling a calling card out of his pocket and handing it to her. "Do you recognize this? We found it in Paris. It looks like mine, but slightly different."

"Hm." Angel looked at it for a moment thoughtfully, then turned her head. "Penelope, didn't my men find something like this?"

"Yes." She opened a drawer by the desk and pulled an identical calling card out of it. Sly compared the two and confirmed this. "They found it during combat when they were fighting enemy forces. And before you ask, no, I don't know where it came from. I did several cross analysis' and considered every possibility that I could think of, but came out empty handed."

"Um, miss, if I may..." the guard interjected.

"Go ahead." Angel replied.

"Uh, yeah. I think I have some useful information." He pulled a photograph and another calling card out of his pocket. "I was able to snap this shot on one of my patrols, and picked this off of the ground." His voice was gruff, but also slow and respectful. "I was thinking that you could analyze this image." The picture was a silhouette which looked noticeably similar to Sly.

Penelope received the picture and calling card from him. She then handed them to Bentley. "I'll leave these to you. I've got enough on my plate."

Bentley stuck them in his wheel chair. "We'll be off then. I'm sure you guys are busy."

Sly and the gang followed the guard out of the office, back through all of the rooms and hallways, and exiting the back alley. When they returned to the docks, everyone got in the minivan, and the guard, who was joined by another who was waiting for them, hopped in a nearby car. The two vehicles then started up and sped away, the team's minivan falling close behind. This time they got to see a better view of the gorgeous city of Monte Carlo. In the far distance, to the north of the harbor, Murray could see a gigantic building made of gray stone blocks with a tower at the top of it, which Bentley confirmed as the Trophee d'Auguste. The construction looked masterful, but for some reason, somehow, part of the building was destroyed, rubble crumbled on the ground. After a few minutes, they drove past the Port de Fontvieille, which was only a couple of miles away from and much larger than the Monte Carlo Harbor. During their journey they also notices several churches, including Saint Paul's Angelican Church Monaco, Saint Nicholas Cathedral, and Chapelle Sainte Devote. The first two churches were unbelievably tall, built with gray stone bricks, and elaborately decorated with shinny shingles and crosses. The third one was much smaller and was light brown in color with perfectly see through windows and a dark brown door. After about twenty minutes, they found the Prince's Palace. It wasn't very tall, but was extremely long and wide. It was light brown in color, had countless windows, but no visible doors, and an unfathomable amount of armed security guards, security cameras, security lasers, security lights, and security turrets, the Gang had never seen anything like it before. Then again, they'd never tried to break into a royal palace before. Everyone got out, including the guards, and one of the guards unlocked the house, everyone entering.

"Do you think it's wise to put us near the palace?" Bentley inquired.

"Angel has a secret deal put together with the royal family. Only them and a few of the guards know that you'll be here." The guard explained. Per the Prince's strict orders, only the royal family and those few select guards are allowed to come around the back here and check out this house, so you should be fine."

The other guard interjected. "Penelope and a few other guards already stocked the refrigerator and cupboards with enough food and drink to last about a month, but if you happen to run out just let them know.

As the guard spoke, the gang walked through the house, marveling at house fancy ti was. Professionally painted walls, waxed, tile floors, several tables and counter tops made with granite and polished so much that they could see their faces in them. Murray, without focusing on anything else, opened up the refrigerator, the freezer, and all of the cupboards to make sure that the guard wasn't lying about the food and drink. The house was lit by ultra violet lights, one in each of the six rooms, shielded by a glass cover. In contrast to the heat outside, the inside was cool due to an electronic air conditioner placed on one of the living room walls. The next room is where they entered. It was the largest room int he house, with a television placed next to the door, and a long couch on both of the side walls and a rocking chair in the center. The living room split off in three directions, a door next to each of the couches, and a door by the wall directly adjacent from the front door. The first two doors lead to the firs two bedrooms. The guard explained that there was only three bedrooms so some of them would have to double up. Sly and Carmelita decided to take the first bedroom, while Bentley and Murray took the second. The third path, which was the only one without a door, lead to a hallway. This relatively lengthy hallway branched off to the final bedroom, which was taken by Jing King and Dimitri, and the kitchen, and the kitchen branched off to the dining room. With all the rooms taken, The Guru decided to remain on the couch. The dining room had a huge brown table with eight brown chairs placed around it. Hanging on the wall was a wooden cabinet with glass windows which contained dozens of condiments and seasonings for food. The kitchen had four sinks, all placed right next to each other, a large dishwasher, low cupboards below the sinks filled with dish washing supplies, paper towels, and other such products. The refrigerator was by the wall adjacent to where you enter the dining room, and there were many higher up cupboards, all of which contained canned and bagged foods. It took twenty whole minutes for them to observe the entire house, their astonishment only continuation to grow. Guess it proves just how much money that Angel and her syndicate have that they were able to afford such a fancy place for the Cooper Gang to live even though they won't be here for very long. The last thing that Bentley noticed was in his room, on a stand by his bed, a peculiar messenger. He also found a note by it, which was from Penelope, explaining that this will allow him to contact her directly, but that it's only to be used in the case of an absolute emergency. After the guard left and the gang was finished being stunned by what they saw, they all regrouped in the living room. Sly, Murray, Carmelita, Jing King, The Guru, and Dimitri sat on the couches, three people per couch, and Bentley remained in his wheel chair.

"Alright guys." Bentley finally said. "I know this house is incredible, but we don't have time to be amazed."

"Please." Dimnitri interjected. "I have fancier digs than dis at ma home, ya hear? Dis was bought wit chump change."

Everyone just ignored him, and Bentley continued. "I'm sure we're all exhausted, so we should get some rest for now. Tomorrow we can regroup here and I'll explain the plan."

"Are you gonna get any sleep?" Sly inquired.

"Maybe." I still have some details to work out." Bentley admitted. "But I'll try and get them done as quickly as possible."

"Well bros, itz been fun, but me hittin' le sack. Gots to catch le z's." Dimitri said.

"I agree with him...I think." Murray responded with a huge yawn.

Murray's yawn appeared to be infectious, because everybody else followed suit. Without another word Sly and Carmelita entered the first bedroom, Bentley and Murray entered the second, Bentley shutting the lights to the living room off beforehand, and Jing King and Dimitri took the third, while The Guru hopped up onto the rocking chair and began meditating, levitating in the air as he did. Before Murray went to bed, he opened the refrigerator and made two large sandwiches and also grabbed a large bottle with drink in it. All three of the bedroom doors shut in unison. Sly and Carmelita set their weapons underneath of their bed, got changed into their night clothes, and then got into bed. Bentley continued sitting in his wheel chair next to his bed typing, while Murray sat on the edge of his bed eating his sandwich and drinking his drink. When he was done, he snuggled underneath the covers, and before he knew it he was passed out cold. Jing King was also quick to fall asleep in her bed, right after reciting a quick prayer by her bedside. Dimitri also followed suit, plopping on his bed, but didn't cover up. After some time passed, Bentley still busy on his laptop, he got a mysterious message. Entering the kitchen so he didn't wake Murray, he clicked on the message. It was encoded very mysteriously, so Bentley had to spend some time hacking into it, and when he finished a light voice spoke to him.

The voice was deep and gruff, and said the following. "Greetings, Bentley Mordecai. I know who you are. However, you don't need to know who I am. Yet. You are probably wondering if I am this 'Master' that you and your gang have been chasing after. I am not. However, weather I am a friend or a foe is entirely based on you. I will say that I am in Monte Carlo as we speak, and i know where you are located. Do not worry, I wish you no harm. However, that could change depending on your answer to my request. Do not get involved with the 'Master.' You have no idea what you're up against. It's a terror far greater than anything that even the Cooper Gang has encountered before. My organization will destroy them, you are not needed. This will be the only time I will ask this. Your only warning. I don't believe in repeating myself. If you have any questions you can contact me at the specified email address. Good day, sir."

After that, the message stopped, the email address he previously mentioned showing up on screen over a pure black background. Bentley, puzzled, took this opportunity to email him back, but with no voice, just next. The email read as the following. "Your proposition sounds interesting. However, I have a few problems with it. First, this 'Master' is attacking us, not the other way around. Sly Cooper and Carmelita Montoya Fox have been framed and expelled from the police force. There's no way we can back down now. Secondly, do you really expect us to listen to you when we don't even know you? For all we know, you could be working the 'Master' and want us to back down so we'll become vulnerable for an attack. And third, even if you are being legitimate, us backing down would STILL make us vulnerable for an attack regardless. So I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I have to decline your request. That is all."

Bentley returned to his room, spent a few more minutes on his laptop, and not long after finished his work. After that he shut his laptop, put it inside of his wheel chair, and hopped on his bed, retracting inside of his shell, making an attempt to get a good night's sleep on this extremely soft and comfy bed, which he hasn't had in quite a while.


	6. A Shadow Approaches

_**Sly Cooper: Legacy of Thieves**_  
 _ **Chapter 5**_  
 _ **A Shadow Approaches**_

Sly Cooper ran speedily on the rooftops, chasing a mysterious person. Due to how dark it was and they distance apart they were Sly couldn't make out any specific features. All he could tell was that he was taller than Sly himself, and was very fast. Sly was having trouble keeping up, panting as he kept rushing forward, gripping his cane tightly in his hand. The two ran on rooftops and leaped between them with swiftness and ease. The moon glistened in the sky as they continued. Down below, vehicles bustled loudly in the streets of Monaco, the combined brighten of their headlights creating a magnificent glow. The glow nearly blinded Sly whenever he looked down, but he persevered. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Dimitri barely visible on a nearby rooftop, pointing his harpoon gun, struggling to find a shot. The two stopped on a building. Sly hesitated for a moment, but then slowly began to walk towards him. When he did, however, a tiny bomb exploded in front of him, taking a large chunk of the roof of the building, and stopped Sly dead in his tracks. The guy he was chasing looked back for a moment, just staring at Sly. After that Dimitri fired several shots from his harpoon gun, but their target jumped off of the several story high building, every single shot missing. When he did Sly ran up to the edge and peered over, but he saw nothing but the ever busy streets of Monaco. Bentley reached the rooftop where Sly was standing, using two mechanical arms protruding out of his wheel chair to climb the side of the building. Dimitri used his large feet to jump high into the air to reach Sly's location as well.

"Where is he?" Bentley asked, his mechanical arms retracting back inside his wheel chair.

"He's gone." Sly responded matter-of-fact. "He's incredibly fast, and also good at thinking on his feet.

Penelope radioed in over a communicator in everyone's ears. "So let me get this straight. This guy, whom you never met before, randomly sent you an email ordering you to stop chasing after the Master?"

"That is correct." Bentley replied. "Then, after I refused his odd request, he attacked our hideout, which is when the chase began. Are you able to detect him?"

"No." Penelope said. "It's like he completely fell off the radar, none of my satellites are able to pinpoint his location.

"Alright, thanks anyways. We should head back to the safe house." Bentley stated. "When we do I'l get to work on improving our security."

"Good idea." Penelope replied. "I'll also talk to Angel and see if she can offer any more assistance in that regard."

A few minutes later Sly, Bentley, and Dimitri arrived back at the hideout. Murray and Jing King were on guard outside the front door, both of them observing different locations, their backs turned to each other. They were both happy to see their friends return, but Murray clearly more than Jing, as he ran up and gave Sly a big hug, almost crushing with excitement, while Jing simply put a faint smile on her face and bowed to her comrades. After that the five of them entered the house, where they saw Carmelita sitting on the midde cushion of the couch, her shock pistol out and ready for action, and The Guru sitting cross legged on the rocking chair. He was doing some sort of partial meditation, where he was levitating, but still clearly awake and not absorbed into the dreamtime world. Bentley explained what occurred to Jing King, Murray, The Guru, and Carmelita. Surprisingly, despite the fact that their house was invaded, there was almost no damage done save for a few scratches and scuffs on the walls. Sly closed the locked door behind them, after which walking up to and hugging Carmelita. Just moments after that is when Penelope and Angel arrived, knocking on the door, shocking everyone. When they were let in, they both sat on the couch, Angel crossing her left leg over her right, two of Angel's guards standing near her.

"I assume Penelope informed you about everything I told her?" Bentley inquired.

"Indeed." Angel responded.

"Then why are you here?" Bentley asked.

"Well, to help you with improving your security for one." Angel replied. "Also, I have my guards searching the outside, just in case this thief happened to slip up."

"That sounds fine." Bentley agreed. "It's almost morning anyways, so I suppose we can begin our daily operations. Sly, Carm, I want the two of you to do some recon around Jeremiah's hideout."

"Penelope cut in. "The security there is almost as intense as Kaine Island, and Jeremiah, Tony, and Jerome are much stronger. Also, I should be able to use my satellites to cloak the presence of your car, but once you get out then you'll be on your own."

"Murray, I want you to come with me." Angel stated.

"Huh?" Murray said. "How come?"

"Because I said. I need to discuss something with you." Angel demanded.

"Well sure, but if it has to do with security or something like that don't you think Bentley, Penelope, or hell, even Sly, would be a better choice?" Murray suggested.

"No no, it has nothing to do with that." Angel assured him. "It's about your father, Jerome Potomus."

"You know my father?" Murray shouted in shock, focusing more intensely on her now.

"Yes. However, this is not something I wish to talk about in front of others. That is why we need to be in private. Also, other than that, I figured we could train a bit. I may not look like it, but I'm quite strong, and i'm interested in testing your strength." Angel said with a smirk.

"sure I guess that's fine." He then matched her smirk with a cocky grin. "But I warn you though, THE MURRAY won't hold back on you just because you're a woman!"

"Good, I would be disappointed if you did." Angel replied with confidence.

Bentley continued. "Dimitri, I want you to take out the marine defenses around the Master's Castle. You'll need to do this before Sly and Carmelita can do their job."

"Smoove, bro! Consider tis done, me swim, shoot shoot, bam, bing, bang, man!" Dimitri replied.

"Next up is Jing." Bentley continued, hurriedly typing away at his laptop which was sticking out of his wheel chair, being held in place by two thin mechanical arms. "First, I need you to visit several buildings which we suspect to be armories of this Master and sabotage them."

"what if you information is incorrect?" Jing asked respectfully.

"Then sabotage them anyways, the less buildings that the Master has to hide stuff in, the better." He said. "After that, i need you to head to a few armories that belongs to Angel. They've been running low on weaponry lately, and we were hoping that you could give them a hand, perhaps craft some fireworks that they could use, and teach them how to implement said fireworks into weapons."

"Certainly Bentley, it shall be done." Jing King confirmed.

"I also need someone to meet up with an informant of mine." Angel explained. She took her left leg off her right, set her foot on the ground, bent forward slightly, and rested both of her elbows on both of her knees. "He's a secret agent who I have undercover int he Master's facility, and we tend to met once a month in the back alleys of my casino. WE're supposed to meet today, but I've been busy so if I go then I'll have to push a lot of stuff to a later time.

"Guru, is it alright if I assign that to you?" Bentley asked, his eyes not once shifting from his laptop screen.

"Absolutely Bentley." The Guru replied. "What exactly should I look out for?"

"Well, usually he just provides files and notes that he's acquired about weaknesses in security, the guards, and the leaders themselves." Angel explained. She pulled out of her pocket and handed it to The Guru. "This will prove that you work for me."

The Guru accepted the card, sticking it inside of his brown, baggy underwear. "Thank you, this should be a quick job for a man of my spiritual expertise."

The Guru then stopped meditating and hopped off of the rocking chair. Penelope and Angel also stood up, Angel roughly scratching her furry face as she, Penelope, Murray, Jing King, and The Guru headed for the door. The five of them went over to Angel's car and got in, Angel driving, Penelope sitting in the passenger's side, Murray sitting in the back seat directly behind Angel, Jing King sitting in the back seat directly behind Penelope, and The Guru sitting in a tiny spot between both Murray and Jing, and they sped away in hurry. After that Sly, Carmelita, and Dimitri went over to their car and got in, Sly driving Carmelita sitting in the passenger's side, and Dimitri sitting in the back seat directly behind Sly, his harpoon gun resting over his lap, and they also drove away, not wasting any time. The two guards that remained then proceeded to help Bentley improve the security. When they were done, the door was outfitted with a ten times lock system, and the outside had an invisible security laser and security light system which spanned several miles away from the safe house itself, plus five security cameras and five security turrets on every side of the house, including the roof, which made twenty five of each in total. Bentley hurriedly sent an email to Angel as well as to a computer in Sly's car, informing them of these new security measures so they would know before they returned. Once he did, both of the guards left. When the cameras out front, in which the footage was shown on his laptop, revealed that the guards were far enough away from the safe house, Bentley pressed a few buttons and turned all of the security on, grinning with pleasure at their success.

Meanwhile, Angel dropped The Guru off at the same back alley where the Gang entered before, she dropped Jing King off at one of her armories, she dropped Penelope off at the casino front doors, and then she drove to her own house and parked the car, her and Murray getting out and walking inside. The outside of Angel's house didn't have all that much general security, surprising Murray, but made up for it with the abundance of security guards, there were countless, and all of them looked so strong and intimidating that even Murray had a nervous expression on his face.

Angel's house was looked jaw droppingly gorgeous and fancy, Murray was breathless. She gave him a quick tour of all twenty five rooms, which consisted of ten bedrooms, five bathrooms, a guest room, a front porch, a back porch, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, a basement, an attic, and a laundry room, and finally a training room, probably one of the largest of the rooms. Each room seemed larger than the last. the height of the house was almost as far as Murray could see with his eyes. Each bedroom had a king sized bed, a walk in closet, and two full body mirrors, plus a skylight on the ceiling. The kitchen had six sinks back to back, plus a dishwasher that reached from the floor to the ceiling. The dining room had an extremely long and decently wide rectangular wooden table with two wooden chairs on each end and ten wooden chairs on each long side, plus three unlit candles spread out on the top of the table. The garage was massive and contained ten convertibles, and the garage lead to the laundry room, which contained two triple load white washers and two triple load white dryers, with a few cupboards that probably contained cleaning products. After the tour ended, the two of them returned to the training room, having to make their way through Angel's personal bedroom to do so, which contained tones of punching bags, weights to lift, and a soft mat on the entirety of the floor.

"Alright, about my father…" Murray said.

Angel cut him off. "Not yet." She handed him a couple of punching gloves, and put some on herself. "First we have a match. I won't talk unless you can beat me on the matt."

Murray put his gloves on and smirked. "Okay, if that's what you want, but don't say I didn't warn you. I hope you don't bleed easily."

Angel and Murray faced each other on the matt, Murray's back being towards the door, and Angel's back being towards the wall adjacent to the door. The two clutched their fists and stared at each other for a few moments before beginning. Murray was the first to move forward. He launched a left hook with his left fist, aiming for Angel's ribs. The ducked down slightly and caught Murray's fist with her right hand. Her feet slid backward slightly, but she soon stopped, and she pushed forward hard. She sent Murray flying through the air, but he managed to stick the landing, not wobbling at all. Angel leaped above him and attempted to punch his head, but Murray blocked it with both of his clutched fists, ducked under her, and sucker punched her in the stomach three times with each fist, after which rolling underneath of her and doing a jumping spin kick to her back, knocking her into the wall just inches away from the open door. Angel didn't stay down for long, however. She quickly scrambled to her feet and launched several more punches at Murray. He managed to dodge every single one of them, but only barely. On occasion Murray was able to get off some punches to her, but she swerved passed all of his, too. Occasionally they would hit each other, but it was just a light jab on their ribs, stomachs, or heads, nothing major, and it didn't manage to slow each other down in the slightest. As they continued a few guards, who were searching for Angel, began to watch them battle from the opened door. After an undetermined amount of time, which both of them lost track of due to how much immense fun that they were having. The fight ended when Murray punched her int he chest, sending her crashing to the ground. In the end, both Murray and Angel were soaked with sweat. Murray took the back of his left hand to wipe a large amount of sweat off of his forehead. Angel's left fist was planted on the ground, and she took the back of her right hand to do the same. Murray lowered his hand in aid, and Angel grabbed it tightly, rising confidently to her feet. Before they could speak to each other Murray finally noticed the three guards standing outside, being entertained by their bout. Angel, noticing Murray's eyes, turned around to face them.

"Do you need something?" Angel's voice was stern, but she still had a smirk on her face from the enjoyment of the battle.

"Uh." One of the three guards exclaimed, stunned. "Yes, ma'am. Penelope wants to let you know that she's going to get some rest due to not having slept in several days. She tried to contact you herself, but you wouldn't answer. She has discovered some useful information, and she'll get a hold of you when she wakes up to fill you in."

"Thank you. Now I'll have you leave. I wish to be left alone with Murray." Angel ordered.

"Yes ma'am." The three answered in unison, after which leaving Angel's room.

Angel and Murray left the training room, Angel shutting the door behind them, and Angel entered her walk in closet, Murray waiting for her outside. A few seconds later she emerged from the closet. She was dressed in much more casual clothing. Her dirty blond hair, which was previously tied up in a gigantic, thick ponytail, was let down and spread almost to her butt. Her leather jacket with her casino's logo on it was replaced with a thin t-shirt, putting a bit more emphasis on her cleavage, and so long on the arms that only her fingers could be barely seen, and the jeans she was wearing before were replaced with gray sweat pants. She walked over and sat on the edge of her king sized circular bed, and patted next to her, motioning for Murray to do the same. He did. She then called for a guard and asked him to bring them some drinks. A few moments later the guard returned with two sodas, and then he left again. Both Angel and Murray took a sip of their sodas before Murray spoke up.

"Alright Angel, we've wasted enough time. Tell me about my father." Murray demanded.

"All business, I see." Angel complained jokingly, but still continued. "Jerome Potomus used to be a member of my syndicate. And he was…my lover." She looked at the stunned expression on Murray's face, and quickly quelled his suspicions. "Don't worry, I'm not your mother or anything. We got together after he left your mom, although I really couldn't tell you anything about her personally. All I knew was that he was with a woman before and had a child. His wife died in a mysterious house fire, and Jerome, not wanting to raise a child by himself, took the child to an orphanage. Happy Camper Orphanage, to be exact."

"That sounds about right." Murray agreed, a sad expression on his face. He took another sip of his drink, his eyes lowered to the ground. "I don't remember much from my childhood, but all my memories from before the Orphanage aren't very pleasant. All I recall is flames, and screaming. And pain, too. Lots of pain. And after that, I woke up at Happy Camper. They explained it to me the best they could, but I don't think I was able to understand a lot of it."

"That's understandable." Angel placed her hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort him. "Jerome was my second in command for many years, but one day he just left. No word, no note, not even leaving so much as a hint, he just went away. I've been trying to find him ever since, but I never would have guessed that he'd team up with this Master and that we'd be fighting against each other."

"What was he like back then?" Murray inquired, after which taking another drink.

"He was…odd." Angel elaborated. "He was very kind and gentle to me, but didn't think much of others. Although he looked rather sad whenever the topic of you and your mother came up. That's why I tried to avoid it whenever I could. I knew it was a sore subject. My guess was always that he regretted giving you up, but felt he would never be a good father, and thus had no choice."

"That doesn't explain why he was fighting me with the intent to kill a couple of weeks ago." Murray stammered, taking a long, rough, angry drink of his soda.

"Like I said before, he's a strange and unpredictable man." Angel responded. She stood up and walked over to a drawer next to her bed. She opened it up and pulled out a ring. "Still, I can't stop from loving him. Even though I know I have to take him down, in order to protect my syndicate."

"Was he your first love?" Murray questioned. She didn't respond, but Murray could tell what the answer would be.

Angel put the ring back in the drawer and closed it, after which walking over to the bed, sitting back down, and staking a deep, passionate sip of her soda. Murray followed suit before speaking up again.

"He means a lot to both of us, but we have to bring him down." Murray lamented, looking her directly in the eyes. "Any ideas?"

"If only." Angel responded solemnly. "He's the only person, man or woman, that I ever met who could outmatch me in terms of physical strength and beat me in a fight."

"Is that why you wanted to fight me?"

"Yes. I wanted to see if you could best me." Angel admitted.

"Did I?"

"I wasn't completely out of energy by the end, but you got close enough." Angel replied. "Only a man of your father's blood could beat me down to the ground like that. I never hold back, even casually."

"So if you can't even tell me how to defeat my father, I guess this meeting was pointless." Murray exclaimed.

"Not pointless." Angel retorted, stroking her fingers down his shoulder and across his chin playfully. "I'm happy I finally got to meet Jerome's son, first of all. Plus I got to inform you of these important manners. And also…"

Before Murray could react, Angel kissed him on the lips. The kiss was extremely deep and passionate, and lasted for five whole minutes. Murray was stunned, but he couldn't move. Not because of inability, but because the shock paralyzed him. But it wasn't fear, he didn't understand it himself. All he knew was that he liked what was happening. It was strange, as he'd never kissed a girl before, but for some reason he didn't want to pull away, despite his inner uncertainty. After she was done Angel moved her face away from his, curled her left index finger underneath his chin, and stroked it lightly, which made Murray shiver.

"You kiss like him to." Angel teased with a chuckle. "He was so tough on the outside, but his kisses were unbelievably passionate."

Murray tried to ignore what she just did and immediately changed the subject. "I suppose I should get going, then."

"Hold on." Angel said. She went over to the drawer again, opened it, and pulled out a white card. "Take this. The card belongs to an old associate of mine who I think would be able to give you some handy training. I'd do it, but I'm too busy. Hopefully that will get to to a level where you can beat down your dad."

Murray took the card but was shocked by the name on it. "McSweeny?"

Angel was very confused. "You know him?"

"Yeah, absolutely! We did business with him in the past." Murray explained, excitedly. "He informed us about the location of the Cooper Vault, from a prison cell, although we didn't interact with him much beyond that."

"He's in prison now?" Angel questioned.

"Yeah, from what I understand he turned himself in after Sly's mother and father were killed." Murray explained. "Although breaking him out shouldn't be too much of a struggle."

"What prison was he sentenced to?" Angel asked.

"Heathrow Penitentiary in New York City, United States" Murray replied. "It's one of the most heavily fortified and guarded fortresses that we've ever went up against, but we still broke in. And out."

"You're in luck." Angel said. "I have some deep contacts within that prison, both regrading inmates and guards. I should be able to get him released, no questions asked."

"That's wonderful!" Murray proclaimed, raising his hands up in the air in excitement. "Man, your connections go deeper than Bentley's."

Angel called for a couple of guards, who escorted Murray out of her mansion and to a car, a different one than the one that Angel brought him in, this one was blue. The three got in, the two guards in the front seat, and Murray in the back. They then drove away, the sound of the car humming very lightly, not making much noise at all, and shortly after that all of the lights in Angel's mansions hut off in unison. Meanwhile, The Guru crept quietly behind the mansion. He used the glow from his moonstone to light the way, but it wasn't overly bright. The Guru shut his eyes tightly in order to slightly enhance the gleam of his moonstone. He was eventually confronted by a short person, about the same size as him, adorned in a black cloak. The two remained motionless for a few brief moments, staring each other dead in the eyes. After awhile The Guru finally spoke up, in his usual low tone, speaking in his native language.

"I have been sent by Angel." The Guru was confused because he was unable to read this mysterious person's mind.

"I am aware." The other person responded. His voice was gravely and menacing. "Here you go."

He opened up both of his hands, put them together, and made some documents in folders appear in them. He handed them to The Guru, who graciously accepted. As they did business, the moon in the sky hovered above the back alley they were in. A light also shone from the inside of the mysterious person's hood. That combined with the glow from The Guru's moonstone and the little bit of light from the moon to light up the alleyway substantially more. The Guru and the other person turned away from each other and began to leave, but the other person turned back around and spoke, stopping The Guru in his tracks.

"I don't know why Angel sent one as you, but please inform her of one more thing." He said with a stern tone of voice. "I didn't put this in writing, because I didn't want to risk it getting out, it's the most crucial piece of information. Tell her that she may want to swallow her pride and accept the aid of other opposing crime syndicates. The Master's organization grows by the day, and it's becoming too powerful for us to combat alone. And I fear that his true goals may not involve this time at all, but traveling through time to ensure that his control of the world remains eternal. I will continue my undercover work, but I can't guarantee how much longer that will last."

With that, the two parted ways completely. Meanwhile, Jing King was walking up to a large warehouse on the outskirts of Monaco. The warehouse was built with countless brown bricks. It was about four stories tall and only ha done door and three windows on the front. She approached the door, but it opened before she could touch it, and a tiny Chimpanzee with orange fur walked through. She was adorned in a pink fighting vest and yellow wooden sandals and she had red, thick lipstick on her lips. She was extremely slender and about half the height of Jing King. When she spoke, her voice was very high pitched.

"A heavyset female Panda. You wouldn't happen to be Jing King would you?" The Chimpanzee inquired.

"Yes indeed. I have arrived to help you fortify your weaponry." Jing responded.

"I'm glad you came. You may not know this, but I worked for your father once upon a time, when he served Clockwerk."

Jing was shocked, but didn't hesitate to clasp her hands together and bow respectfully. The Chimpanzee just shrugged it off, chuckling at Jing's action.

"You're fine, you don't have to show me that much respect." The Chimpanzee told her. As they continued their conversation the two walked in, Jing King slamming the door behind them. "I was one of the first guards he chose to serve him, and I also convinced him to defect from Clockwerk after he was defeated by Cooper. Also, you probably don't remember me, but before I became a guard I looked after you as an infant while your father was governing his steadily growing empire."

"Why do you work for Angel's syndicate now?" Jing asked.

"Meh." The Chimpanzee responded nonchalantly. "Push comes to shove. I needed money and I've got experience in the field of crime."

Jing King was astounded by how huge, complex, and intricate that the armory was. The current storage warehouse wasn't anything special, just a large building with weapons and ammunition hanging on the walls and in cabinets, cupboards, and drawers, but then they exited the back of the warehouse. What Jing King saw before her was what seemed like a village. The area had several canals, each with tones jolly boats with guns attached to them floating through. There were countless bridges with machine guns and canons mounted to them, and a seemingly endless amount of guards, ranging from squids, to walrus', to Doberman pinscher's, to bulldogs, to pit bulls, to jailbirds, to dalmations, to rats, to mice, to mosquitos, to spiders, to turtles, mandrills, to apes, to gorillas, to chimpanzees, to monkeys, to falcons, to slugs, to pigs, to warthogs, to Ibex's, to baboon's, to rhino's, to cobras', to elephants', to bats, to wolves, to coyotes, to vultures, mountain goats, to geese, to moles, to black bears, to grizzly bears, to polar bears, to brown bears, to eagles, to toucan's, to pigeons', to cat's, to cane corso's, to kangaroo's, to dingo's, to scorpions, to rabbits, to ram's, to tiger's, to lion's, to mantis', to chihuahua's, to golden retriever's, to basset hound's, to lizard's, to alligator's, to crocodiles', to macaque's, to crane's, to boar's, to jackalope's, to bull's, to cow's, to woolly mammoth's, to dodo's, to sabertooth's, to ice beetles, to owl's, to hawk's, to miniature dragons, to siamese cat's, to crab's, to lobsters, to octopuses, to sharks, to venus flytraps. Many guards are in vehicles such as trucks, tanks, and choppers, while many are on foot. Many on foot wield different weapons such as handheld canons and machine guns. Guards that reside in water, such as sharks, squids, and octopuses, were swimming in the canals, while guards that can fly such as owls, hawks, and eagles were soaring through the sky. Several large towers were placed around the area sporadically with four guards positioned at the top, and many more warehouses existed at various locations, with guards constantly entering and exiting them. Before Jing could absorb everything, a chopper landed in front of them and the pilot, a snake guard, invited the two of them inside. Once they entered, it went back into the air and began to fly over the armory, allowing Jing King to marvel at it more clearly through the window. As they traveled, she wondered how Angel got her hands on so much weaponry. She could probably start a war if she wanted to. And then Jing received a tingle down her spine, thinking that this Master has the capability to contend with Angel's syndicate despite how powerful they clearly are. That terrified her more than anything else possibly could. Thinking about it, she had to take her left hand to wipe sweat off of her forehead, as it seriously made her nervous. The chopper eventually stopped by a warehouse which seemed to be far removed from the rest of the armory. The snake called it the central intelligence of the armory, the area where all of the guard commanders are located and where major information about guards and associates are stored. The Chimpanzee and Jing King got out of the chopper and walked inside of the warehouse, and quickly made their way to the front desk, which had a female elephant with glasses on her face sitting behind it.

"Lucy." The chimpanzee exclaimed loudly.

The elephant, who was observing some paperwork, raised her head and soon plastered a smile on her face. "Chou Mei." She said, moving her glasses to the top of her head and laying her pen down on the table.

"Mary." Chou Mei responded. She had a distinctive Chinese accent. "This here is Jing King. She's the one who will be educating our men on firework production."

"Excellent." Mary replied. "The rest of the guards have been getting antsy while waiting for her to arrive. Follow me."

Mary stood up and began walking to the left of her desk, Jing King and Chou Mei following closely behind. Mary's large stature as an elephant caused her walk cycle to be slow and her steps to be loud and hard. She occasionally breathed heavily out of her long, blue trunk, which would cause dust to blow on the ground. When they arrived, they met a tall green cobra with slimy scales, a short monkey with orange fur holding a pair of black nunchucks connected by a long gray chain which he slung over his shoulder, a falcon with gray feathers which soared over their head and then landed on the ground, a short, slightly muscular mandrill with blue fur holding a baseball bat, and a tall, muscular, gorilla with brown fur approached them. The falcon was extremely short, but it's wingspan was about half the height of Jing King. The mandrill only a tiny bit shorter than Jing King. He was bare chested and adorned in white pants and a red sash across his waist which held his pants in place. The cobra slithered on the ground and had an extremely long, red tong which stuck way out of his mouth. The monkey was the same height as Chou Mei and wore a large red hat on his head. And the gorilla wore a thing green vest around his chest and back, golden bracelets on both of his wrists, and purple protectors on both of his knees. He wielded a sword in his left hand, with two more sheathed on either waist, and a flashlight which was turned in his right hand. He pointed the flashlight down towards the ground so he doesn't blind anyone while he's talking to them.

"Is this the daughter of Panda King?" The Gorilla inquired.

"Yes General Tso. Be sure to follow her instructions to the letter, without any arguments. It's Angel's orders." Chou Mei exclaimed.

"You look just like him little lady. Never thought I'd be taking orders from the daughter of my old master." General Tso said, following up by a huge laugh. His voice was deep and gruff.

"Old master?" Jing King responded in a confused tone.

"Indeed." Chou Mei replied. "It's not just me, many of us here used to work for your father. And not just Panda King. Many old minions of enemies of the Cooper Gang have been recruited by Angel. She took us in and gave us work after our old gigs fell through, we owe her a lot."

"I owe your father a lot too, though." General Tso exclaimed. "I didn't agree with a lot of his operations, but he took me in off the street and saved me."

"I see." Jing King said, a small smile creeping on her face. "I was young at the time and he was always away so I didn't know him that well, but I guess he did care for others even in those days."

"True enough." General Tso agreed. "Clockwerk was a monster, but he wasn't able to entirely steal away Panda King's heart."

"Anyways, we should get to work." Jing King said, getting more serious now. "I don't have a whole lot of supplies with me, but I'm sure you guys have enough for us to work with."

"I'll be back." The falcon said. His voice was low and menacing. He flew up to the rafters at the top of the warehouse. When he came back down he held a box in his talons. He did this nine more times.

Meanwhile, a silhouette ran at high speeds through the back alleys, the docks, and eventually arrived where he was headed, a moat surrounding the Master's Monaco headquarters. It was Dimitri, panting for breath. He was adorned in his trademark diving gear, which consists of extremely thin blue and green tights which covered his main body, his arms up until just before his wrists, and his legs up until just before his knees. He had two gigantic orange and black flippers on his feet. Because of the flippers, each of his steps was rather loud and splashy. He had a large silver oxygen tank strapped to his back. Wires from the oxygen tank were attached to the face section, which was resting on the top of his head. He gripped his harpoon gun tightly in both of his hands, and had his large, long, purple tail raised in the air so it doesn't drag on the ground. When he stopped moving he set his harpoon gun on the ground, pulled out his binocucom, and dialed up Bentley.

"Hey, turtle bro, am I at le right place?" Dimitri asked, whispering cautiously.

"I think so, yes." Bentley responded. His face appeared in the binocucom, which Dimitri held in front of his face, and he was hurriedly typing at his computer while simultaneously talking with Dimitri. "I've hijacked Penelope's satellites so I can aid you to the best of my ability. According to my data, there's both surface and underwater marine defenses surrounding the castle. The walls of the castle possess security turrets and cameras, but they don't have good range, so as long as you remain underwater for the duration of your job you should be fine. Other than that, just blow stuff up."

"Aye, bro!" Dimitri replied excitedly. "I do le swim, le shoot, n le break, bing, bang, bong, bro! See ya inna minute!"

Before Bentley could reply, Dimitri put away his binocucom, covered his face with his oxygen mask, picked his harpoon gun back up again, and leaped into the air, diving deep below the water's surface, water splashing up on shore. Almost immediately Dimitri noticed a bunch of dangerous sea creatures approaching him. He pulled a tiny lever on the left side of his harpoon gun to cock it, and then shot all five of them without missing a beat, killing them instantly. After he did he quickly swam past where they were, using his strong yet slim legs, combined with his powerful flippers, to allow him to travel and rapid speeds, the density of the water doing absolutely nothing to slow him down. After that he was surrounded by dozens more dangerous sea creatures. They were all white and looked like sharks, except they were about three times the size of a typical shark, and had long and most likely sharp spikes at various points all over their bodies. As they charged towards him Dimitri, with a cocky grin on his face, shot them one after another without hesitation. They were faster than him, but he was able to compensate with heavy ingenuity, the fire and reload rate of his harpoon gun, hard swipes from his thick, powerful tail, and his ability to think ahead and outsmart his enemies. Every once in awhile he would have to use the back of his harpoon gun to push a shark away from him if it got too close, after which he'd speedily turn it back around and take them out with one single shot. Despite how weak his feet typically were, his flippers also provided great assistance when he was in a pinch due to how thick and hard they were. He would occasionally kick the sharks away from him, only to lay the finishing blow with his harpoon gun.

It wasn't long before the section of water that Dimitri was in was a bloody, disgusting mess, but this didn't phase in in the slightest. Taking deep, long breaths as to not expend too much of his oxygen supply, and rapidly flapping his legs and flippers, he continued his journey. A few moments later he noticed of the corner of his eye something peculiar on the water's surface. A small machine which was almost done charging. After getting some quick information from Bentley, Dimitri charged towards it. Supposedly, when it's done charging, it will send an electrical current through the water, electrocuting him down to the bone. He fired five charged blasts from below, which didn't even scratch the machine. After thinking for a few more moments he leaped out of the water, ignoring Bentley's pleads not to, pressed a few buttons on his harpoon gun to make a long blade appear out of the hole in the top, landed on the machine, and stabbed it. A few seconds later the machine exploded, sending him flying back into the water. Some of the nearby turrets did detect him, but he was flying too fast for them to be able to get a clean shot, so every single one of the missed. Though he got caught in an explosion, he was able to regain his bearings extremely quickly, pressed a button on his harpoon gun to make the blade retract, and then continued swimming. Bentley informed him that there was nine more of those machines across the waters that Dimitri had to take out. As he approached the next one, he noticed that they only begin to charge up when he gets close enough to him. After some investigation, he also discovered that they have very limited range, and it's possible to activate one without activating any of the others. Dimitri used this new found knowledge to destroy all nine of them, along with many other deadly sea creatures that arrived as well, until none were remaining.

Dimitri smirked and began to swim towards the shore, but he stopped immediately when he heard a rumble from below, much deeper into the moat. He gazed down, extremely nervous, and before long a gigantic machine similar to a submarine revealed itself, emerging from the darkness of the depths. It had missile launchers, canons, machine guns, and several immensely bright flashlights attached to it all over its body. Dimitri dashed out of the way, just barely dodging the behemoth of a machine. When he got behind it he thought he was in the clear, but he was shot at by more than a dozen missiles. Swerving passed all of them, a few of the missiles grazing his skin but nothing major, Dimitri swam to the top of the machine and slowly landed on it, struggling to fight against the weight of the water. In an attempt to shake him off the submarine continuously picked up speed, but it was no use; Dimitri was able to use his slimy, sticky hands and feet to keep hold. He pressed a button on the right side of his harpoon gun which caused a blade to come out of the hole again, except this time it was three times as long. Without hesitating he stabbed into the top of the submarine and slowly cut a circle into it. When he was done the blade was incredibly dull and probably couldn't cut anything anymore, but he still succeeded. All of the guards inside flew out into the water, the submarine sunk back down to the bottom, and Dimitri was knocked off by the massive amount of water that was being sucked inside. After the battle he was a little bruised here and there, mainly on his face, and his diving gear was ripped in a few places, but other than that he was perfectly fine. Bentley radioed in and informed Dimitri that his job was done, so Dimitri swam to the shore, leaped high out of the water, and stuck the landing.

He almost fell over, but managed to regain his balance at the last second. He speedily removed the face mask that's connected to his oxygen tank and the flippers on his feet, after which hurrying back to the safe house. The flippers being removed from his feet made it much easier for him to run fast. Due to how far away the safe house was, Murray came driving by in the team van and Dimitri opened up the back double doors, hopped inside, shut them behind him, and sat down, after which Murray stepped on the gas and sped away in a hurry, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake.

Meanwhile, Sly and Carmelita arrived at the castle just as Dimitri exited. In addition to her standard shock pistols, one in her hand and one holstered by her left waist, around her waist was strapped a large, complex, black utility belt, all six pouches full to the brim. Sly had a utility belt which was identical to hers. Bentley radioed in and quickly informed both of them of the plan. Carmelita went first, using her shock pistol to take out dozens of security turrets and security cameras lining the walls. She jumped high in the air in an attempt to get closer and make cleaner shots. Many of the turrets shot in Carmelita's direction, but she was able to effortlessly deflect their blasts with her blasts or dodge out of the way, typically by falling down into the water, after which leaping back out again. When she was done she splashed into the water one last time and swam to shore. Sly approached next. He grabbed a grappling hook out of one of his pouches, spun it in a circle near him, and then threw it towards the castle. It latched onto one of the window ledges, cracking the window slightly, he yanked on it, and it pulled him to the window. He then took a moment to scan his eyes across the front of the castle. As far as he could see, there were no more turrets or cameras on this side. He scurried to the top, after which holding out his cane over the edge. When he did, Carmelita pulled a grappling hook out of one of her pouches, which was a tiny bit smaller than Sly's. She threw it out and it wrapped tightly around Sly's cane. Sly tugged hard on her grappling hook, which caused her to fly all the way up to the top, sticking the landing as she fell. The two hurried to the center of the roof. Sly pulled a hot laser pointer out of one of his pouches, silently sheered a hole in a skylight, pulled the clean cut piece of glass out and placed it on the roof, and the two attached the hooks of their grappling lines to the roof, tying the lines around their waists, and lowered themselves inside, quickly hiding among the rafters, after which taking out their binocucoms and activating the cameras.

The inside of the castle looked really cool, it was difficult for Sly to not just stand still and marvel the scenery. The current room that they were in looked like a ball room. Just below their feet was a stage hidden by a red curtain. The only reason they could see the stage itself is because of how high up they were, they could see over the curtain. In front of the stage was countless chairs, all of which were completely empty. Sly quickly snapped a picture of the stage and the group of chairs, before the two moved on. To the left of their position they found an air vent. Sly used his laser pointer to sheer the bars off and the two crawled inside. They went as fast as they could, while not going too fast in fear that they'd make too much noise and alert the enemies. They would occasionally come by more vents, which Sly peered through to take pictures. The first one showed a massive bedroom and inside of it Jeremiah, who was laying on his bed, on his back, casually reading a book. The room had two doors, one adjacent to the bed which probably lead outside, and the other on the right side of his bed leading to an unknown location. On the wall to the far left side of his bed was a group of six windows, each window placed a few inches away from each other in two groups of three. He had a red, king-sized bed, with an awning above it, and red drapes attached to the awning, plus red rope barriers, attached to short, gray steel poles, surrounding his bed. His bed was perfectly made, and Jeremiah himself was laying on top of it, not covered up. Sly quickly took a few snapshots. He started with the room as a whole, but then got some closeup shots of Jeremiah himself, the mysterious door, and the group of windows. After that they moved on. Before too long they came to a fork in the vent. In an effort to conserve time they went their separate ways, Sly going right, and Carmelita going left.

Sly eventually arrived at another grate. Peering through, he saw a fancy looking hallway. Bentley radioed in and explained that this is called the Belt Room, which Jeremiah probably used as a guest room should he ever need it. It was rather large, with a white tile floor, pictures all over the walls, chairs resting by the right wall, and huge windows attached to the left adjacent wall, not to mention a few doors here and there down the hallway. The ceiling, what little bit of it that he could actually see, was golden, weather that was just paint or if it was actually covered in gold Sly couldn't tell. Sly quickly snapped a picture of the room as a whole. He was about to move on, not seeing anything of interest here, but he was stopped when he heard one male and one female voice. They started low, but gradually got louder, Sly listening in closely through the grate. Eventually the voices were loud enough for him to make out completely, and the two people attached to voices emerged. It was Tony Kamehameha and Conquering. Sly snapped a picture of them separately, and then listened closely to their conversation.

"Conquering, where the hell is the Doc anyways?" Tony exclaimed with a displeased look on his face.

"How the hell should I know?" Conquering responded with venom in her voice.

"Because you work close with that old man, don't you?" Tony boomed, visually irritated.

"I tolerate him, but it's not like he tells me anything." Conquering replied. "I occasionally read his mind, but I like to avoid that if I can cause his mind is screwed up."

"Well you need to confront him." Tony demanded. "We need his help, badly. The Cooper Gang are loose in my castle, and they're eliminating my security forces."

"I told you to place tones of guards outside." Conqureing scolded him, gazing out the window.

"I doubt it would've made a difference." Jeremiah responded. At first he was walking on two legs, towering inches away from the ceiling, but now he bent down, walking on all four fists, although this still made him much taller than Conquering. "This Cooper Gang is really becoming a thorn in my side."

"Indeed." Conquering agreed. "I am beginning to understand why the Fiendish Five, the KLAWW Gang, and The Doc had trouble discarding these pests."

"Speaking of which." Tony grumbled, changing the subject. "How are our prisoners?"

"Annoying." Conquering lamented. "I have to use my most powerful spells to keep most of them down. Weather it's Jean Bison's, Rajan's, Muggshot's, or Don Octavio's physical strength, or The Contessa's or Arpeggio's mental strength, they're able to resist a lot of my magic. Only the Doc and the Bird are willing to cooperate."

"You won't have to restrain them for much longer." Tony assured her. "Once the Doc is finished with his research and experiments, we'll be able to dispose of them."

Sly couldn't believe what he was hearing. Fiendish Five? KLAWW Gang? Not to mention The Bird and The Doc. He suspected who they might be, but was praying to God that he was wrong. Before Tony and Conquering left he snapped a quick photo of the two of them separately. Tony left through the same way that they entered, and Conquering walked all the way down to the other end of the hallway and exited through a different door. After that Sly, against Bentley's wise counseling, used his laser pointer to sheer away the bars and hopped out of the air vent, landing light as a feather on the ground. He made his way towards the nearest door, which was attached to the wall where the chairs sat. He peaked through the peep hole to make sure that nobody was in the next room. After he confirmed this he attempted to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. He spent some time using his cane to pick the lock. After that he walked through, quietly shutting the door behind him. Meanwhile, Carmelita was still crawling through the air vents. She eventually came to a grate and looked through it. The room was very large, huge, white, almost completely baron walls, a brown wooden ceiling, and a brown tile floor. She took out her camera and snapped a picture of the room as a whole. She then noticed a strange brown map on one of the walls, the only thing on any of the walls. She took a picture of it, and after she did Jerome walked in. Looking angry. He made his way to a stand by the wall that the map was hung on, picked a black landline phone that was sitting on it, and began dialing. Carmelita asked Bentley if it was possible to listen in to their phone conversation. Bentley tells her to take a picture of the phone, which she does, and then a few seconds later he was able to hack into the phone system, wiring the conversation through Carmelita's communicator so that they could both hear it. The phone rang six times before someone answered. The man on the other end possessed a familiar, high, gravely tone of voice.

"Doc." Jerome boomed. His intense voice gave Carmelita shivers as he spoke.

"What do you want? Don't you know I'm busy?" The Doc responded in a nonchalant tone of voice.

"I want you to come to the Castle right now." Jerome ordered. "We need your help over here."

"The Castle!?" The Doc replied, shocked. He then let out a menacing laugh, which visibly annoyed Jerome. "I'm in Paris, how the hell do you expect me to get to Monaco that quickly? If you're struggling with the Cooper Gang that much I'm pretty sure you'd be arrested before I got there!"

"This is an order, Doc!" Jerome said with venom in his voice. "Don't forget whose in charge here!"

"Perhaps it is you who have forgotten." The Doc responded cockily. "You might TECHNICALLY be my boss, but you NEED me and my genius. What are you going to do if I disobey? Kill me? Expose me to the authorities? Fire me? That wouldn't be a very wise decision."

"Is that a threat?" Jerome's voice suddenly went extremely low.

"Oh, relax you big oaf." The Doc responded, seemingly unfazed by Jerome's terrifying demeanour. "I'm hacking into the security systems of your Castle as we speak so I can update them appropriately. If you want, I can also send some of my guards to work for you for the time being, although I can't guarantee when they'll arrive. Is that enough for you?"

"That should be fine for the time being." Jerome relented. "By the way, how's the work on the time machine going?"

"Shockingly it's going rather well. We should be ready in about a month." The Doc exclaimed excitedly. "Penelope's and Bentley's schematics served us well. I hate to admit it, but those two are far more capable than I. I was astonished by all the research they completed, it was spectacular."

"Just make sure your guards get here soon." Jerome demanded. "We have guests arriving soon to take a look at Jeremiah's art gallery, and we're not too keen on having thieves running around here and possibly ruining our chance to make more money. We could use those funds to continue progress of our plans."

"Speaking of which." The Doc changed the subject quickly. "How's your battle with Angel going?"

"Not good." Jerome lamented. "Her syndicate is even more of a pain in the ass than the Cooper Gang, given their size. However, my spies have located a few weaknesses in her facilities. We should be able to make an assault soon."

"Sounds good." The Doc said. He could be faintly heard typing on a computer on the other end of the phone line. "If you need any more weapons or machinery, just give me a ring, and I'll see what I can do."

The audio suddenly cut off. Carmelita questioned Bentley about it, and he explained that something interrupted his proxy server, but that they should have heard enough of the conversation to suffice. A few seconds later the phone call ended, Jerome hung it up, and then he exited the way he came. After Carmelita heard a door in the other room, which she couldn't see, open and shut, she took a laser pointer out of one of her pockets, sheered the bars off, and hopped through, landing roughly on the ground. She headed the same way that Jerome did into the next room, found a door, and went through it, shutting it behind herself. At this point she was in the same room that Sly was, the door she went through right next to the one that Sly did. Meanwhile, Sly was busy investigating the room that he was in. Bentley informed him that this room was called the Hall of the Galley. It's purpose is to present tones of priceless artwork for guests. He wasn't kidding. The walls were littered with paintings, way more than Sly could count. Each of them looked amazing, like they were painted by some of the best artists in the world. Other than the wall art, this room possessed several corridors that seemingly lead to nowhere, and a few windows in certain locations which stretched from the ground to the ceiling. Per Bentley's instructions Sly snapped twenty pictures of the walls littered with artwork, and also of a peculiar statue which was sitting next to the furthest wall away from him. After that he made his way through a door that was next to the statue and came to a much smaller room, which Bentley told him was the armory room. All four of the walls were lined with gray armor. Armor standing upright, armor sitting on fake metallic horses, and armor hanging on walls. Sly walked to the center of the room and took a picture of the armor. When he did, however, Jeremiah suddenly came through the same door that he previously did. He didn't look surprised, in fact the expression he gave off was that of a cocky smirk, almost like he wanted to run into Sly himself. Sly pulled out his cane in his left hand and his shock pistol in his right hand, cocking the latter, but when Jeremiah rose high up on just two legs, towering over Sly, Sly still couldn't help but feel terrified. He tried to disguise this by putting his own trademark cocky grin on his face, but Jeremiah didn't seem fooled.

"I didn't expect to run into you here, Cooper." Jeremiah exclaimed in a nonchalant tone of voice.

Before Sly could respond Jeremiah lunged forward and attempted to punch Sly. Sly leaped backward, just barely managing to dodge his massive fist, and landed on his feet. Jeremiah's fist was so powerful that it put a small hole in the concrete floor, sending debris flying everywhere.

"Easy now, don't you wan to talk first?" Sly responded desperately.

"Talk about what?" Jeremiah replied matter-of-fact. "This is MY Castle. YOU are an intruder. That's all there is to it, pest."

"Well, you're smarter than most of the villains that I've fought in the past at least." Sly said, after which releasing a large sigh.

Without responding Jeremiah picked up two complete sets of armor, one sitting on a horse and one not, one in each hand, and tossed them at Sly. Sly slid underneath of them, and when he did they crashed against the wall, all of the pieces being spread everywhere. Sly kept sliding until he made his way underneath of Jeremiah, after which bolting out the door, Jeremiah not wasting any time to follow him. Sly radioed into Bentley, telling him that he needs Murray to pick him up as his cover has been blown, and Bentley acknowledged his request. He ran hurriedly down all of the hallways and rums that he had been to before. He would occasionally turn around and fire his shock pistol at Jeremiah in an attempt to slow him down or distract him, and when he did he slowed down slightly for a few seconds until he once again focused on the direction he was running. After awhile some guards, which Jeremiah contacted on a cell phone, arrived, running towards Sly, but he effortlessly jumped over them, slid under them, shot them with his shock pistol, or wacking them in the face, the last two knocking them out cold. Whenever Sly would jump over them or slide under them Jeremiah, being in a hurry and merciless, would knock them against the walls with his gigantic hands, which would also knock them unconscious. Jeremiah was so inflamed with rage that it was difficult for him to remain balance, which would cause him to occasionally knock into the walls, breaking off debris whenever he does. Sly eventually came to Carmelita, who was walking peacefully down the hallway. As soon as she noticed Jeremiah and Sly she turned the other way and began sprinting, not needing to say a word. Eventually, irritated, Jeremiah leaped towards them, putting a crater in the ground when he landed. Carmelita was able to easily super jump away from him, but Sly was hit. He knocked back against the wall, in visible pain, but managed to maintain his balance.

He jumped in the air, ran on the wall for a few seconds, and leaped forward, sticking the landing and continuing his trek. Carmelita kept running while all this happened, which caused her to get quite a bit ahead of him, but it didn't take long for him to catch back up to her again. After several minutes of running they eventually came to the front door. Noticing that it's locked, and that Jeremiah was jousting forward again, they ducked out of the way at the last second, used his punch to destroy the door, plus a good portion of the wall, and then fled out of the castle while he was still confused by the dust and debris. Murray was already parked outside, tirelessly fending off guards who were trying to get at him and the van. Once Sly and Carmelita arrived they opened up the back double doors, hopped inside, and then shut them, Sly sitting in the passenger's side and Carmelita sitting in the first seat on the left side of the back, and Murray, once the guards stopped coming, got into the driver's side, slammed the door, and sped away, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake. Not long after Jeremiah appeared through the dust and debris, running across the drawbridge, and stood still on the edge of the moat. His face was unmistakably infuriated, slamming his left fist on the ground in rage, creating a massive hole. After he calmed down a tiny bit, although still pissed off, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed up The Doc and Conquering on a conference call, informing them to tighten up security around the Fiendish Five, the KLAWW Gang, and the Others, and also to accelerate the plan, as he feared that if they didn't, they would end up failing in the end. After that he hung up his cell phone, walked across the drawbridge and back into the castle, and a few seconds later the drawbridge raised, a loud boom being heard when it finished. Meanwhile, a helicopter rapidly few through the air and eventually landed on the ground.

Out of it stepped Chou Mei, Mary, and Jing King, the latter of which having to roughly squeeze out of the tiny helicopter due to her heavy set appearance. They landed in a giant, grassy, windy field, Chou Mei explaining that this is as close that they can get to the Master's armory, so they have to walk the rest of the way. They did just that, taking out guards along the way. As they did, both Chou Mei and Mary were incredibly impressed with Jing King's combat skills. Her primary attack was creating and throwing average sized yellow fireballs, but she had others. She had an attack called Fiery Wheel, where she swiped her hand, coated in flame, on the ground, her body flying through the air upside down as she did. She had an attack called Booming Chop, where she coated one of her hands in fire, and did an open hand chop on the ground. And she had an attack called Palms of Thunder, where she slapped the palms of both of her hands on the ground, which caused thunder and lightning to resonate for a few seconds harming anyone who came near it. She claims that those abilities were all taught to her by her father. She does, however, possess some abilities of her own. She pulled two fireworks out of her bazooka and set them on the ground with the tips facing upward. She then lit her left index finger on fire and ignited both of the fireworks, and then clapped her hands loudly, sparks flying everywhere. After that she hopped back a bit, and a moment later the fireworks launched high into the sky, after which exploding, sending a seemingly endless amount of smaller fireworks and sparks plummeting down to the ground, killing dozens of defenseless guards. This was an attack that she called Firework Rain. Seeing how good Jing King was doing, and not wanting to be outdone, Chou Mei began fighting, utilizing several interesting and swift punches and kicks to attack, and flips, jumps, and slides to dodge.

Despite her size she seemed to be very strong, it only took two, maybe three hits to knock out one single enemy, which allowed her to quickly dispose of them. Continuing without hesitation, Jing King clapped her hands together again which caused flame to joust out from all around her body, incinerating anyone who was too close to her at the time. This is a move that she called Ring of Fire. Becoming jealous at Jing King's talent, Mary also began fighting. Due to her massive size, one punch or one kick was enough to defeat a guard. She also had her long trunk, which she could use as a whip, or she could blow shockingly damaging balls of air out of it. She also had a devastating attack where she charges forward at insane speeds, bulldozing anyone in her path. Admiring the skills of her new comrades, Jing King continued. She loaded her firework launcher completely, stuffing a total of ten fireworks inside of it, five with each hand. After that, there was a moment pause, and then they all fired, one after another, and struck enemies, completely mutilating them beyond all recognition. This was an ability that she called Firework Blast. The three continued until they reached the armory. They finished off all of the guards keeping watch over the outside of the armory. Before they could enter though, three helicopters appeared and landed on the ground, their propellers rustling the wind and grass rapidly, and the noise making it impossible to hear anyone speaking. The helicopters soon shut down, the propellers and noise taking awhile to completely halt, and then four people got out of each one, two in the front and two in the back. The first helicopter had a tall, slimy, green snake, a tall, slightly muscular, pink squid, with a white shirt, blue pants, and a flashlight in his left hand, a heavy-set walrus with a yellow shirt covered by blue suspenders and a red hat, wielding a brown wooden mallet in one hand and a yellow large throwing star in the other hand, and a tall, brown doberman pinscher adorned in a white shirt covered by a black coat and wielding a huge, two handed machine gun.

The second helicopter a tiny yet long gray bulldog with a chainless red collar around his neck, a short, yellow pitbull wearing a thin red and white shirt and wielding a long, brown, wooden baseball bat in his right hand, a short gray basset hound adorned in an orange jump suit and wielding a black ball attached to a long gray chain, and a tall, skinny, gray dalmatian, adorned in blue pants, brown shoes, a tiny blue hat, no shirt, and wielding playing cards in both of his hands. The third helicopter had a short, muscular mandrill, wielding a long, brown plank of wood, and adorned in white pants and a red sash around his waist, a tall, slightly muscular ape, adorned in nothing at all except for a small sash to cover up his groin area and a scarf around his neck with his legs much smaller than the rest of his body, a short, muscular gorilla adorned in a green sash, golden bracelets on his wrists, and wielding a flashlight strapped around his neck and a sword in each hand, and a very short red monkey adorned in gray pants, a fat red hat, and a pair of black nunchucks connected by a decently long gray chain. And the fourth helicopter had a heavy-set pink pig wielding a bazooka in his left hand and a flashlight in his right hand, a short, gray rat adorned in a black and white stripped shirt, yellow pants, a red scarf, and a red hat, a very short frog wielding a switch knife in his left hand and a hand held mega phone in his right hand, and adorned in white pants kept in place by a black belt with a golden buckle, white gloves, and a small brown hat on his head, and a large blue warthog with a bazooka in his left hand and a flashlight in his right hand, and adorned in entirely blue clothing except for his gloves which were black. Each of the reinforcements introduced themselves to Jing King, in order of their appearances: H.P. Squidcraft, Thor McCracken, Vinnie the Pincher, Cletus, Gorgeous Lou, Paulie Shackles, Inkspot Jackson, Kung Pao, Andre, General Tso, Monkey Do, Wee Wee, Froppy, and William McWarthog.

Once all fifteen of them gathered together they charged towards the armory, lead by Jing King, with Mary and Chou Mei standing behind her side by side, and everyone else behind them grouped together in disarray. Jing King used her fireworks to blow open the front door-along with a lot of the walls-and they immediately began attacking the hordes of guards that greeted them. Jing decided to leave most of the fighting to her comrades while she proceeded to destroy the weapons that they were storing in this building. The ones that were on the ground she simply ran next to and gently placed some fireworks next to them, in an attempt to conserve effort and energy, but the ones dangling in the air she had no choice but to shoot either fireworks or fireballs at, her accuracy pinpoint perfect. This armory was five stories tall and unbelievably wide around, so it took about thirty minutes to complete the mission. She was amazed as no matter how many guards they took out, they seemed to endlessly come. Not only did this make it seem like the Master had an endless army of servants at his disposal, but also that they knew that they were coming even before they entered the air. Even if they had seen the helicopters fly overhead, which would have been understandable, it still would've taken the guards that weren't already working or patrolling at the armory to arrive, which means that they must have had some inside information. But what? And from who? This is something that Jing King could not answer, but she had no time to this about it right now. She would bring it up to Bentley and Penelope later, but at the moment she had to focus on blowing stuff up, the thing that she's good at. Once ten minutes passed, Jing King was visibly exhausted. She panted heavily, and sweat dripped off of her face and body, her clothing soaked. This was especially shocking considering that the inside of the armory was abnormally cold, so as to not make the bombs they were keeping too hot or they would explode on their own.

Jing King finished the last of the bombs and weapons by using a new technique. She clapped her hands together again, and then gripped them together, and breathed a large amount of fire out of her mouth. She called it Flame Breath. By this point, the guards were finally starting to diminish, very few of them arriving anymore. The armory, despite it's massive size, was also beginning to crumble due to the destruction that Jing King had committed. Jing King, Chou Mei, Mary, and the rest of them hurried out of the building before it completely collapsed, burying alive all of the other guards that were still inside. The few remaining guards had their visions obscured by the insane amount of smoke and debris, which allowed Jing and everyone else to get back to their helicopters, get inside, turn them on, and take off to the skies again, flying away to safety. After awhile the, everyone remaining silent, the helicopter that Jing King was in separated from the others. It flew her all the way to the gang's safe house. It eventually landed and Jing King got out. Jing King thanked Chou Mei and Mary, bowing in gratitude, and the two of them thanked her for her assistance as well. After that they flew up into the air again, heading back to their base. Jing King walked up to the door and Murray opened it before she could knock, and she entered, Murray shutting and locking it tight behind her. Every other member of the gang was present. Sly, Carmelita, and Murray were sitting on the couch, Dimitri was sitting in the rocking chair, The Guru was levitating in the air but was awake so it's clear that he wasn't meditating, and Bentley was sitting in his wheel chair. Bentley was typing at his computer, Sly and Carmelita fiddling with their shock pistols, and Dimitri fiddling with his harpoon gun, but they all stopped and looked up once Jing King entered the safe house. Sly, Bentley, Carmelita, Murray, and The Guru all had excited looks on their faces, while Dimitri's expression was seemingly plain and uncaring.

"Great job, Jing!" Bentley complimented. "I just got an email by Chou Mei, she explained that the mission was a success."

"That is good, but there was something that made me concerned." Jing exclaimed with a frown on her face.

"You mean the guards somehow knowing the plan?" Bentley said. The look on Jing King's face told him that he was right. "Yeah, she told me that too. I emailed Penelope, and she said that she'll look into it. There's nothing more that we can do right now."

"Besides, you should still be happy Jing." Sly spoke up. "You did an amazing job today."

"I suppose you are correct, Cooper. Thank you." Jing King replied, putting a smile on her face. Somehow, Sly's voice and encouragement always had a way of cheering people up.


	7. Casino Games

_**Sly Cooper: Legacy of Thieves**_  
 _ **Chapter 6**_  
 _ **Casino Games**_

Sly landed softly on the roof of a Museum in Monaco. The rooftops had no guards, the only guards were on the ground. Sly had special glasses on that Bentley created for him which allows him to see in pitch black. They're handy tools considering that there's no lights at all on the roof. Sly saw a few security cameras. Before they spotted him he leaped in the air, landed on the camera, and stabbed each one with the end of his cane, making sure to jump away before they explode. There was ten of them. After that was done, Sly tiptoed over to the glass skylight, used his laser pointer to cleanly cut a hole in the window, placed it gently aside, and then pressed a button on the Cooper symbol attached to his belt, which released a couple long, tough wires. He attached the wires to the glass and then flipped himself over, gracefully lowering himself into the museum. Before he continued he pressed a button on his glasses. There was a few lights in the museum so sight was no longer an issue. Instead, the green lenses on his glasses turned blue, and revealed countless lasers and spotlights, made invisible by infrared technology. He also noticed several more security cameras. Before he proceeded he grabbed a rock out of his pouch and threw it into the lasers. His test was a sucess, he learned that inanimate objects aren't noticed by the security measures, only organic beings. He reached into his pouches and grabbed several ninja throwing stars, after which tossing them at the cameras, taking out all twelve of them in the room with ease. After that he lowered some more. When he got close to the lasers, he lowered himself in between them, making sure to go incredibly slow as to not touch them. Once he got to the ground he flipped up right, stuck the landing. Sly then proceeded to leap, flip, and slide over and under lasers and around spotlights. There was only three guards patrolling in this room.

Sly made quick work of them by first knocking them in the head, confusing them, and then pulling a spray can out of his pouch and spraying it in their faces, which caused them to fall unconscious. After that he reached a wall. He flipped a small switch, which caused all of the lasers and spotlights in the room to turn off. With danger no longer emanate Sly turned his special glasses off, took them off his face, and stuck them in his left pouch. He then walked to the center of the room, which contained a pedestal that had a glass case on it, and inside was a gigantic red diamond, said to be worth several large fortunes. It originally belonged to Angel, but a group of thieves stole it from her. She made a deal that if the Gang could steal it back, they could keep it; she didn't care so much about the gem itself, she has plenty, she just couldn't take the humiliation of being stolen from and wanted some revenge. He used his laser pointer to create a hole in the glass, but this time just threw the piece on the ground, shattering it. After acquiring the gem, being incredibly careful with this priceless, fragile artifact, he placed the Cooper Gang calling card inside. After that he walked back to the spot that he originally landed and then tugged on the cables still attached to him ever so slightly, which caused him to be slowly raised to the roof. Once he reached the top the three guards awoke, noticed him, and called for reinforcements. Once they did, alarms sounded from all over the building, and cop cars rushed through the streets of Monaco at rapid speeds. Once Sly climbed out of the building he released the cables which retracted back into his belt. As if on cue Penelope's RC Chopper came flying by. Penelope spoke through a speaker on it, telling Sly to give the gem to the claw that was protruding out of the bottom of the chopper. Once he did, the Chopper flew away, and Sly also made his way back to the hideout.

He was able to remain on the rooftops during the entire time, which made it easier for him to avoid capture from the guards, but they still noticed him and shot at him as he jumped and ran, but not a single shot even came close. The RC Chopper was traveling so enough so that Sly could keep it in sight, as it was taken the shortest yet safest wrought back to the hideout, avoiding major highways and as many guards as it possibly could. Once they arrived, both Sly and the Chopper entered through the front door, which was mysteriously unlocked, unlike normal. Sly shut the door behind them, and the RC Chopper flew over to a small, brown, wooden table that was next to the couch, rested the gem gently on a cushan that was on the table, and then flew over and landed next to the feet of Penelope. Penelope, Dimitri, and Murray were sitting on the left side couch, Carmelita was sitting on the rocking chair shock pistol in hand, The Guru was levitating in the air with his legs crossed and purple smoke circling him, clearly in partial meditation, Bentley was sitting in his wheel chair typing away on his laptop which was extended out of his wheel chair with a couple of long, thin, mechanical arms. Sly went over and sat on the right side couch, next to Jing King, who was fiddling with her fireworks. Before anyone could speak, the door opened again, and in walked Angel, shutting the door behind her. Murray blushed and averted his gaze slightly, and Angel just grinned in response. Before she shut the door the gang could see three guards that had accompanied her to the hideout, but they remained outside, their backs turned to the door, their flashlights on low in one hand and their machine guns wielded in their other hands. Angel was adorned in a thick, brown, fur coat, she had lipstick on her lips and eyeliner on her eyes, red fingernail polish on each of her fingernails, and her blond hair was tied back in a gigantic ponytail.

Sly scooted to the middle of the couch to give Angel enough room to sit down. Behind the rocking chair was a gigantic circular table with a digital image of a world globe on it. Bentley wheeled over to it, pressed a few buttons, and a giant holographic map of the entirety of Monaco appeared, reaching from the surface of the table to the ceiling and stretching fairly wide around. Murray, curious, stood up, walked over to it, and waved his pink, bulky hand through the holograms several times in a row, a befuddled expression drenching his face. Penelope stuck a key in a small keyhole in the table and turned it which caused a new control panel to appear out of the side of the table. She then pressed some buttons on it, which caused a bunch of red, orange, blue, and green lights to appear in various locations on the holograms. Most of the members of the gang were incredibly confused, the only thing that was clear was the casino, which was directly in the center of all of the holograms and marked a symbol of the Angel statue that's at the top, the trademark of the casino. Angel eyeballed the gem Sly previously stole, obviously pleased, and then turned her attention to Sly himself.

"Not bad, Cooper." Angel praised him. "I've spent years trying to steal that back, but you did it in just one night."

Sly gave his trademark cocky grin and responded. "What can I say? It's not wise to underestimate the name Cooper. Anyways, mind explaining what's going on here?"

"I need your help again." Angel exclaimed. "The twenty year anniversary of the opening of my casino is today and I'm having a huge celebration to commemorate. Plenty of my associate syndicates and gangs will be appearing, and I have reason to believe that the Master will be there as well."

"That explains why you're dressed so formal today." Sly replied.

"So let me get this straight. You want us top pose as high rollers to try and fish out the enemies?" Bentley said.

"That's correct." Angel said. "It won't be that easy. I highly doubt that the Master will send anyone that you've fought over this passed month. Plus, you'll need to know how to play casino games."

"That's not a problem!" Murray shouted with excitement. "Both me and Sly have visited casinos before many times! We're masters of them, weather it's poker, blackjack, or simple slot machines!"

Angel turned her attention to Murray; her piercing gaze caused him to blush again. "I was hoping to have you on standby to fight once they're discovered, kind of like a security guard."

"That can be my job." Jing King turned to her and responded, respectfully folding her hands together and bowing, still sitting down. It should not be a problem. Besides, I have some new firework techniques that I have been wanting to test."

Angel turned to Sly, who confirmed Jing King's trustworthiness with a simple head nod. "That'll do, then. While the celebration is going on, the mansion will be mostly undefended, so I'll need a completely separate team to break in and destroy it. Ransack absolutely everything you can, and then send it up in flames. Once their primary headquarters is taken care of, even if they manage to escape my casino, they'll be on the run, in the streets."

"I've got an idea." Bentley said. He finally stopped typing on his computer and looked up at everyone. "Most of our men will probably have to be present at the casino, but me and Penelope have been developing some robots in secret which should be able to do the job."

Everyone was shocked by this revelation, so Bentley suggested that they go out back and take a look at them, which everyone agreed to. Sly, Bentley, Murray, Penelope, Carmelita, The Guru, Dimitri, Jing King, and Angel, in that order, exited the hideout. Angel shut the door behind them. As they headed around a back ally, the three guards that were positioned followed at the tail end, obeying a finger motion by Angel. The flashlights were necessary, as the relatively lengthy ally was pitch black due to the house and dozens of trees, which stretched overhead, not allowing even light from the moon, which was directly above them, to enter. Once they reached the back there Bentley used a match to light several torches that were sticking out of the ground, after which the three guards turned off their flashlights. The back yard was larger than anyone would expect, with the branches and leaves from the trees still overreaching and blocking out the sky. The grass was incredibly short and the ground was pretty soft; there were even some places where people's feet sunk in a tiny bit. Before their very eyes were the robots that Bentley was talking about. There was five of them in total, and each one was at least three times the height of Angel, who was the tallest person here, at 7 in a half feet. One of them was the widest and bulkiest, with countless canons and missile launchers littering its entire body. Another was substantially shorter, a tiny bit shorter than Angel. Its metallic feet were webbed, telling everyone that it was a machine that was meant for the water. The third was shorter than the first but taller than the second. It had a small, circular air jet on the back of each arm and each leg, as well as a pair of wings attached to its back. The next one was the shortest of them all; in fact, it was shorter than any of the members of the Gang aside form Bentley and The Guru.

In place of normal metal hands were instead two drills, and it also had a drill for a head, and several other drills placed on random locations on its body. The final robot was almost the same height as the first. It looked almost exactly the same as well, the only differences being that it was much skinnier, and also its feet were welded to the ground, unlike all of the others. Angel attempted to explain what the first four were for, and Bentley confirmed that she explained accurately. The first was designed to attack the interior of the mansion, the second was for the water, the third was for the air, and the fourth was for an underground assault. She was confused, however, about the fifth and final one. Bentley elaborated, explaining that its feet were welded to the ground because it was designed for ranged attacks. This was just in case the other robots failed, they'd still have this one to fire it's machine guns, canons, and missile launchers from the hideout. It had a perfect GPS targeting system built into it, so there would be almost no chance than any shot would misfire or accidentally hit the other robots. Furthermore, these robots were run on auto pilot, so there was no need for Bentley or Penelope to personally maintain them. Angel, pleased, ordered that everyone get ready, as they needed to be at the casino in five hours. Everyone headed back to the front of the hideout, the three guards turning their flashlights back on, Bentley putting out the ten torches. Angel and her guards got in her car and drove away, while the Cooper Gang headed back inside of the hideout, shutting the door behind them, and began to prepare for the celebration. Later that day, three vehicles drove in the direction of the casino. Sly and Carmelita in their blue car, Dimitri in his red car, and the rest of the Gang in the Cooper Van. Murray was driving, Jing King sat in the passenger's side, The Guru sat by the back left hand side well, and Bentley and Penelope sat by the back right hand side wall.

Both of the front windows were open in all three vehicles, while Murray dangled his head outside of his window. First Jing King was dropped off near the front door. She was allowed to keep her firework bazooka, but she had to change her clothes. Instead of her normal wardrobe she was adorned in a thin black T-shirt, which was common among Angel's guards, and a thick black leather coat, which only her highest ranked officials wore, which gave her high status. Jing King was informed that she was to be the leader of Angel's forces today, and that all of them have been strictly instructed to obey her without question. One of the guards offered her a machine gun, but Jing King denied, explaining to everyone how she fights, which they appeared to be amazed by. The team van, Sly's car, and Dimitri's car, the van being disguised as a normal black mini-van, pulled into the parking lot, shut off, and then Murray, Sly, and Dimitri got out. All three of them wore black leather coats, Sly wearing some black sunglasses on his face, Dimitri smoking a cigar, and Murray's muscles being slightly visible, just enough to deter anyone who may want to try and jump him. They entered and were greeted by Angel, who directed them to their tables. Angel had already scheduled them games to play, against opponents who she knew worked for the Master, to save them time. Bentley was still in the van. With Penelope's help, Bentley tapped into the casino's security cameras, and is also communicating with Sly, Murray, and Dimitri via communication devices in their ears. The windows of the van were tinted from the outside so Bentley could see out but nobody could see in. The casino was littered with people, both inside and out. The Cooper Gang arrived just in time because before long every space in the parking lot was filled. The inside wasn't any better, there must have been thousands of patrons, but ones who intended to play and intended to watch, and the noise was so loud that nobody could hear themselves think.

Sly, Murray, and Dimitri sat down at their respective tables. Sly and Murray were playing poker, while Dimitri was playing blackjack. Each table was brown and pretty small. Only two people could sit at them, everyone who wanted to view the match had to stand up and huddle around, struggling to catch a glimpse. Sly's opponent was a petit Pygmy Marmoset. He was so tiny that he needed countless couchans to be sat on his chair in order to see above the table and play the game. He had a constant shit eating grin on his face, which made it difficult for Sly to tell what he was thinking. Although the opponents were supposed to introduce themselves to each other, per Angel's rules to try and build good will among patrons, the Pygmy Marmoset didn't say a word, so Sly followed suit. Murray's opponent was a female lion. She was a bit taller than Murray, with a huge, golden mane circling her entire face, mouth, and head, and fur covering her hands, which were the only other parts of her flesh visible to Murray. All of her fur was neatly combed and groomed, and she wore lipstick and eyeliner, most of her upper body covered in a brown fur coat. She introduced herself as Jade, a close friend of Angel. Murray tried to introduce himself, but Jade cut him off, claiming that Angel already told her about him. Jade gave him a sly wink, which caused him to blush, and all she could do was chuckle under her breath. Dimitri, who was excited to play one of his favorite games, saw his opponent next, who was a Giraffe. His neck was twice as long as normal, and he ad special glasses on so that he could see all the way down to the table. Due to his large stature he didn't ware any clothes on his upper body, but did adorn ins pants at least, which Dimitri caught a glimpse of when he walked up before he sat down. The giraffe, who had to shout so anyone could hear him, was named Joel Goldsmith, and Dimitri, who similarly shouted, repayed the respect with his own name.

Penelope was still at the hideout. She was sitting in the back yard in a lawn chair. Two small, brown, wooden tables were set up in front of her, each one having a laptop on it. One laptop was used for aiding Bentley in any way she could, while the other was to control the giant robots, which were still there. After getting a call from Angel, who told her that the castle was mostly undefended, Penelope pressed a few buttons on one of her laptops. After that, four of the five robots jumped in the air, and fire propelled out of their feet. The Guru, who was meditating behind Penelope, cast a purple force field to prevent the kickback from the rockets from harming Penelope, but she still had to shut her eyes because of the blinding light. After a few seconds they rocketed through the overreaching branches and leaves. This caused the earth to quake and enough of the trees fell over, allowing sunlight to enter the previously enclosed backyard. On the screen of her other laptop showed a GPS targeting system. The robots were mostly on auto pilot, but she could use this to control the robots if necessary. Moving at high speeds, they were able to reach the castle in no time flat. The robot with flippers on its feet dove deep into the moat surrounding the castle, one remained flying above the castle, and the other two crashed through the roof. One of the two used its drills to rapidly dig beneath the ground, and the other remained inside of the castle proper. After that, all of the robots commenced attacking. The underwater robot and the underground robot attacked from beneath, the air robot attacked from above, and the other one began firing as well. They destroyed everything and killed everyone in their wake. The robot that remained at the hideout didn't begin attacking yet, as Penelope wanted to wait to see if they'd actually need it. It wasn't easy, as the guards were tough.

They took out some hand held rocket launchers that could heavily wound the robots, but not enough to take them down. As the robots fought, Sly, Murray, and Dimitri continued their games. Sly's game lasted for an hour, and Murray's and Dimitri's weren't much longer. As they played Bentley kept going back and fourth between monitoring the cameras of the casino and giving Sly, Dimitri, and Murray advice. While the three of them are skilled gamblers, especially Dimitri, Bentley still thought it would be useful if he helped them cheat from a distance. To that end, three of the cameras are monitoring their opponents hands. Every little while Bentley radios in through their communication devices, letting them know what is in their foes hands, and the three of them responded accordingly. When the games were almost at their conclusion Bentley noticed through one of the cameras a mysterious figure hide a hand gun. Since it's against the rules for anyone beside guards to carry any sort of weapon in the casino, visible or hidden, Bentley contacted Jing King and gave her the location of this strange individual. Jing, along with a group of six of Angel's guards, went into action, taking the back alleys as to not frighten any of the guests. All of the other guards were on stand by in case they were needed, but for the time being remained to protect their posts. When the intruder noticed Jing and the other six guards walking towards him, he quickly ducked out the back door and bolted across the street. Jing managed to catch him off landing some fireworks right in front of him. He managed to keep running and swerving for awhile, but after the sixth shot the rubble that was upturned by the force of the fireworks caused him to trip, tumbling over. While this did slow him down and force him to confront Jing King, he still managed to roll to safety, pulling out his hand gun and pointing it directly at his assailants.

He was a gruff, burly warthog with a menacing expression on his face. He was wearing very little clothes, probably to make it easier to move around, no shirt and only some short pants with no shoes. His entire body was covered in brown fur, a long snout, two long, sharp tusks protruding from either side of his snout. He was a tiny bit shorter than Jing King, but he was so fat that he probably weighed quite a bit more. Jing King ordered him to freeze and drop his gun. Her voice was loud, booming, and commanding, but still had a hint of femininity in it. Instead of obeying, he began to fire. Jing King and the guards ducked for cover, firing right back at him. The warthog appeared to be incredibly acrobatic, flexible, and speedy, despite its size, because it was extremely difficult for them to strike it. Eventually Jing King did succeed though, scoring a direct hit with a single firework to it's stomach, knocking it far back into a tree, the tree toppling over, coming so close to landing on the warthog but just barely missing. With the warthog unable to move and in visible pain, Jing King hurried over to it, pulled a long rope out of her firework bazooka, and wrapped it tightly around its four feet, making sure that it wouldn't be able to escape. One of Angel's guards then pulled a couple of suction cups out of his fanny pack and fastened them firmly around his tusks, so that they wouldn't be an issue. When he fell down his gun flew far away from him, almost to the street, which another one of the guards confiscated, storing inside of his fanny pack. Jing King promptly coated her hands in yellow fire and threatened the warthog with it by hovering one over his body and the other in front of his face. Jing King demanded that she should explain who he is and what the Master's grand scheme is if he wanted to live, but he refused. Before Jing could proceed a car drove up behind them.

Jing turned around and took a fighting stance defensively, but realized that it was Angel, who stepped out of the car. Listening to Angel, Jing King stepped aside, got rid of the fire that was on her hands, and then watched as Angel herself got information out of this guy. She bgan by ripping off the suction cups on his tusks and the rope around his feet, and then proceeded to step hard on his stomach. It was here that Jing King got to see the more devious side of Angel. She was wearing high heals, so when her heals struck his stomach they really started to dig in and blood was quickly drawn. At the moment he still remained silent, although he was clearly in agony. Angel then removed her foot, a small bit of blood dripping off of her pointed heal, took her fist, and punched him in the face. This caused him to spit out several teeth and even more blood was drawn. This scuffle continued for about a minute. Jing King could hardly stand to watch, but her guards seemed unfazed, like this was an occurrence that they witnessed all the time. She hated the sight, but continued to look as she didn't want to look too weak and spineless in front of Angel. Within only a minute Angel acquired the information that she wanted, after which she ordered the guards to stuff the warthog into the trunk of her car. The trunk had a few holes that were small enough to be barely noticeable but large enough to allow air to get in so the warthog didn't die. Angel explains to Jing King, that the warthog, calling him, Mikhail, recited that the Master had other bases all over the world, but that her syndicate was probably safe due to his nearby mansion being completely destroyed by methods that he wasn't aware of. However, both Jing King and Angel smirked at the sound of this, as they new.

He also said that he was sent to the casino to murder a bunch of random people to cause a panic, after which their strongest forces would be able to storm in and take out all of the major players in Angel's syndicate, hopefully including Angel herself and the Cooper Gang. After receiving some more information and some orders form Angel, she hurried back to the casino, crossing the main floor this time instead of heading through the back ally, and Angel got in her car and drove away, quickly speeding around the right side of the building. Once she was on the play floor she began walking, as no running was allowed inside. She noticed that Sly, Murray, and Dimitri were standing up next to a wall, but ignored them because she knew their mission wasn't over yet, they still had to get paid for their victories. She also noticed Carmelita, who was wielding one of her shock pistol's, acting as one of Angel's guards right next tot he front doors. She exited the front of the casino and made her way to the team van. After knocking on the door, Bentley opened up. Jing King got in quickly before anyone could notice, after which she shut the double doors. Bentley still had work to do on his laptop, but he turned his focus to Jing King for the moment as he could tell by the intense gaze in her fiery red eyes that the situation was urgent. Jing King explained everything that Angel had described to her. Bentley radioed in the situation to Penelope, The Guru, Sly, Murray, Carmelita, and Dimitri and turned on the auto braking in the van, Jing aiding Bentley into the driver's seat, putting a few pillows underneath of him, Jing sat in the passenger's side, and they drove away. They arrived at the hideout, picked up Penelope and The Guru, and headed directly for the wasteland of a mansion. Jing explains that, according to Angel, there is a prison underneath of the mansion which has some interesting folks incarcerated.

Those were Mikhail's exact words, he didn't explain who they were, instead putting a shit eating grin on his face. As it drove the van's holographic technology that caused it to look like a regular black mini-van deactivated. Once they arrive the van made a screeching stop and everyone got out of the back, Jing helping Bentley back into his wheel chair. The four robots, done with the assault, were stationed motionless in the wreckage of the mansion. Penelope pressed a button on a remote control, which caused them to fly through the sky again, heading back to the hideout. Bentley, Penelope, Jing King and The Guru spent some time searching through the remnants of the mansion. They examined the debris, swapped it around, everyone except Bentley because of inability digging through it with their bare hands. After awhile The Guru notified everyone. He used his magic to reveal an invisible door in the ground. It was relatively small, wooden, and splintery, as if it was installed in a hurry without time being taken to make it look nice and less dangerous. After Jing King opened the door, they saw staircase leading down, so broken down that it looked terrifying. Right after that Dimitri's and Sly's cars arrived. They both parked next to the team van. Dimitri got out of his car and Murray, Carmelita, and Sly got out of his car, all of them joining the others. Sly said that Angel would be on her way shortly, and with that all eight of them entered the hole in the ground, shutting the door behind them. Carmelita pulled out a flashlight and flicked it on, lighting their way because their was absolutely no light in this, long, narrow, wet, uncomfortable tunnel. Once they reached the bottom they went through another door; this one wasn't on the floor, it was in the normal position of a door. They next room they were in was completely different from before. It was large, well lighted, the walls were metallic and very shinny.

What they saw before them was unbelievable. Several hard steel beds with a few familiar faces strapped to them. First was an extremely tall tiger with orange fur and purple stripes. Laying beside his bed is a purple turban which belongs on top of his head, and he wears a red vest as well as purple and green pants. He also wears green shoes. Beside his bed was also a long wooden staff, which was his primary weapon This is Rajan, who at one time was the spice producer for the KLAWW Gang. He was fastened to his table with steel straps. Even if he was conscious, it would be unlikely that he'd be able to escape, despite his massive strength. The next one was a large spider, likely a Black Widow spider. She has the upper body of a human woman where the spider head should be and has claws instead of hands. She wears a red dress and also has a pocket on the back of her abdomen. She was strapped to her table by her eight spider legs being stretched out all around and each leg being individually tied down. She has glowing red eyes, and long, flowing, blue hair. This was The Contessa, who was once the inside cop of the KLAWW Gang. She was also unconscious. The next one was a very fat bison with yellow horns, blue eyes, a purple nose and purple feet. He wears a hide tunic and purple gloves. Over his left eye is a scar. Laying beside his bed is a horn which would usually go around his neck, a bear trap which would usually go over his shoulder, a canteen which would usually go on his waist, and a large wooden club which is his primary weapon. This is Jean Bison, who was once the spice shipper for the KLAWW Gang. He is also unconscious. The last two shocked them the most. Arpeggio and Neyla, the former leaders of the KLAWW Gang, who were both supposed to be dead. Arpeggio was a tiny yellow and green parrot. He had blue hair and bloodshot blue eyes.

He wore a white shirt, gray vest, and orange cape, and had a monocle over his left eye. Laying beside his bed was a renaissance style at which would normally go on his head and a tall bird cage with mechanical legs which he would always ride in. Neyla was a bengal tiger with violet fur, shoulder-length black hair and markings. She wore head jewelry, a red and golden decorated hijab, long, black, flowing hair, green eyes. She wore a dark blue tank top, brown shorts with a blue belt and a golden buckle to hold them up, and a small pair of brown boots. Laying beside her with a very long, thick, brown whip which was her primary weapon. Instead of laying on a bed, she was strapped to the wall, her unconscious head hanging down so her face is directed towards the floor. This sight was unbelievable. Rajan and Contessa were unthinkable enough. Jean Bison was weird, but one could assume that he could be thawed out again if he was once. But Neyla and Arpeggio? They weren't frozen, they were killed. Clock-La ate Arpeggio, and then Neyla was killed by Sly, Bentley, and Murray. It was like a twisted nightmare. With the absolute hell that that these two put them through, they couldn't fathom them being brought back from the dead. Not to mention, how? Sure Mz. Ruby could bring back the dead, but her magic only brought them back as either zombies or ghosts, they weren't complete people like before they died. It made absolutely no sense at all. Dimitri looked just as scared as Sly, Bentley, and Murray. He never fought them, but he worked with them, so it's not too shocking that he isn't very pleased to lay his eyes on them again. Next to the wall that Neyla was strapped to was a large computer with a complicated keyboard. Bentley identifies it as similar to a Wurlitzer-1,000, the most recent model of the Wurlitzer piano computers.

Both him and Penelope began hacking into it side by side. Sly was worried, but Bentley commented that they shouldn't sentence them to death despite the trouble they've caused them in the past. Noticing a three more doors in the room, Jing King launched her fireworks above each of them, causing rubble to fall down and block them, preventing any potential reinforcements from arriving through them, making it to where the door they entered was the only one. Out of the corner of his eye Sly noticed guards approaching from behind them. In response, both Murray and Jing King went through the door and began fighting them off together. Neither of them took a single hit during this ordeal. Rather than spending time loading her firework launcher over and over again, Jing King threw fireballs constantly. Murray's punches were extremely fast and devastating. It only took one punch to knock each guard unconscious. He never stopped for even a moment, wailing on them with terrifying force. While Murray and Jing King fought and Bentley and Penelope hacked, Carmelita took her shock pistol and destroyed a couple of control panels, which she could tell were wired to the security cameras in this room. Once they were gone, the security cameras deactivated and even fell off of the walls and ceiling. There was twenty of them in total. Before long the hacking was finished. All of the restraints were released from the KLAWW Gang members. Neyla fell to the ground on her face due to her being strapped to the wall. Sly approached Neyla, Bentley approached Arpeggio, Murray approached Jean Bison, Jing King approached Rajan, and Carmelita approached the Contessa. Sly tried to shake Neyla awake, stating her name in a plain tone, not concerned but not uncaring. At first, she didn't respond at all. Sly gazed up towards everyone else in the room.

Then, before Sly could react, Neyla sprung to life, grabbed her whip, and whacked Sly, which sent him flying back into the wall. The rest of the Gang didn't have time to be stunned as the rest of the KLAWW Gang followed suite. Jean Bison kicked Murray away, after which grabbing hold of his staff, the latter managing to land on his feet but still slid against the wall. Arpeggio fluttered around Bentley and knocked him out of his wheel chair. Bentley managed to crawl and climb back into it again, but by the time he did Arpeggio had already re-entered his large birdcage and got it to sit upright again. Rajan clawed Jing King across her stomach, after which picking up his staff. And the Contessa spun around and attempted to web Carmelita. Carmelita was the only one who managed to avoid the attack, although just barely, the web lightly grazing her back. Sly leaped to his feet just in time to dodge the next swing from Neyla's whip. He managed to get his body out of the way, but it wrapped around his cane, which allowed Neyla to swing him around the room, knocking him against walls, the ceiling, and the floor. Jing King fired a firework at Neyla, freeing Sly from her clutches, then turned her attention to Rajan, who came after her with vicious tenacity. His staff began generating with yellow electricity which he shot in the form of a jagged bolt. Jing launched some fireworks at it, the two attacks colliding together, canceling each other out. They kept the attacks up at great speed. Jing was only able to fire two off at a time, one to cancel out Rajan's blast of lightning, and the other to strike him. Rajan didn't have time to charge his staff up very much, so his blasts weren't strong enough to overpower her fireworks. Jing King took a long rope out of her bazooka, used her powers to coat the entire thing in fire, and then threw it, tying one end around Rajan's leg, and yanking, causing him to fall on his back.

After that she loaded her firework launcher twenty times until it was full and fired all of them at once, each firework striking Rajan directly as he lay helplessly on the ground. Carmelita's confrontation was trickier because Contessa was able to crawl and web swing all over the place. Her shock pistol shots were always accurate. She unloaded on Contessa, never letting up. The did appear to be harming Contessa, but they didn't slow her down even a tiny bit. The Contessa was fast and swift. With her long, numerous legs, and despite her large frame, she is able to scamper across the floor, walls, and ceiling and great speed, and jump high in the air, leaping over Carmelita's head. Carmelita, however, is even more skillful and flexible. After several minutes of combat she discovered the Contessa's weak point. By sliding underneath of her she would fire shock pistol shots at her underbelly. When she did this Contessa would release great yelps of pain and fall on the ground. At first she managed to keep getting back up again, but after awhile she fell down and remained down for good. Her underbelly shown of bruises, scratches, and cuts, but no severe, irreversible damage. The toughest battle was Murray's, because none of his punches were able to harm Jean Bison. He wailed on him constantly, releasing fast punches, the most devastating ones that he was able to, but all Jean Bison did was shake slightly and keep rushing forward. After awhile his fists became bright red and began hurting. He unfolded his fists and shook his hands in the hopes of revealing the pain but to no avail. Jumping back into the fray he managed to hit Jean Bison hard enough to knock him into the wall. It didn't harm him, just disorient him, but it worked long enough for Murray to grab hold of his wooden club. He then smacked Jean Bison with the club with great force.

Several more wacks is all it took to lay him out on the floor on his stomach. Meanwhile, Bentley and Arpeggio rapidly fired bombs at each other. Bentley's bombs were being thrown by mechanical arms that were protruding out of his wheel chair, the arms grabbing the bombs from inside of his wheel chair, while Arpeggio's bombs were being launched by a strange gray machine attached to his birdcage. The fight was nothing more than a slug fest, each combatant attempting to either start throwing bombs faster, which they never did, or get a lucky shot with one of their bombs. After while Bentley did just that, one of his bombs, which he happened to throw with his own hand instead of one of his mechanical hands, struck Arpeggio's birdcage directly, knocking him back into the wall. The door opened and Arpeggio flew out of it, landing on the ground with great force, defeated. In the meantime, Sly was still struggling with Neyla. No matter where he went, she would follow and cut him off. She was just as fast as him, just as swift, just as intelligent regarding one on one confrontations, and even more flexible, not to mention her whip could attain more range than Sly's cane. Her whip wrapped around Sly's cane again, but this time he thought ahead. Using all of the strength that he had, he swung her around hard into the wall. This didn't stop her, however, as she kept coming. Sly leaped over her whip and landed on it with one foot, after which leaping in the air again, soaring over top of her and wacking her in the back of the head with his cane. This disoriented her enough for him to keep wailing on her with his cane until she was knocked out cold along with the rest of the former KLAWW Gang members. After the battle was concluded there was a moment of almost entire silence, the Gang regrouping with each other to discuss what had just happened.

Before they could get far, the KLAWW Gang woke up again in the order of Rajan, Jean Bison, The Contessa, Arpeggio, and Neyla. The gang prepared for combat once more, Bentley grabbing some bombs in both of his normal hands and four of his mechanical hands, Murray clutching his fists and taking a fighting stance, Sly raising his cane, and this time his shock pistol, taking a fight stance, Carmelita raising both of her shock pistols taking a fighting stance, Jing King coating both of her hands in fire taking a fighting stance, Dimitri, who mysteriously didn't get involved previously, raising his harpoon gun, taking a fighting stance, Penelope causing her RC Car and RC Chopper finally arriving, and The Guru wiggling his fingers to cause some purple smoke to float around him and hiding behind everyone else. The KLAWW Gang members were confused at first, but when they saw the Cooper Gang they all rose to their feet , grouped together, and took their own fighting stances. Everyone just stood in silence for a moment ready to pounce, but then the KLAWW Gang looked at each other, then back at the Cooper Gang, then directly at Dimitri, which caused him to back up slightly, and then back at each other again, incredibly confused as to what was happening right now.

Rajan was the first to break the silence. His voice was loud, booming, and growling. "Can somebody please explain what is going on?" His comment ended with a large snort.

"I have several questions." Contessa said in a mature, dignified tone of voice. "Why are we in this strange face, why is the Cooper Gang here, and why is Dimitri standing with them?"

"That's his name?" Jean Bison questioned, earning himself a disgusted expression from Dimitri.

The Cooper Gang began to lower their guards, but still kept their weapons out just in case they were being tricked. Bentley wheeled closer to them. He was hesitant at first, and stopped for a moment when Rajan and Jean Bison raised their staffs, but when they received a piercing expression from Arpeggio, they backed down, and Bentley finished his trek up to them. He explained everything that was going on, everything that they had been through over the passed few weeks, ending it with the fact that they were captured down here but the Gang has no idea why. The KLAWW Gang began attempting to process this information. The Contessa and Arpeggio kept standing, Rajan and Jean Bison sat on the beds that they were previously strapped to, and Neyla sat on the floor and leaned up against the wall. Sly noticed something peculiar about her. She was shaking ever so slightly and there was tears in her eyes. She was doing her best to hide it, but she couldn't hide it from Sly.

Finally Arpeggio wheeled over to the Cooper Gang, Bentley following him, and he spoke in a high pitched tone. "I see. This is all quite difficult to comprehend, however, I for one believe you."

"You do?" Rajan exclaimed loudly.

"Yes. Predominately because I was awake for longer than you guys." Arpeggio explained. "My memory is rather hazy, but I do know who the Master is. Aleksandr Artem."

Penelope spoke up quickly. Her voice was loud and concerning. "Aleksandr Artem? The multi-billionare genius inventor, philantropist, mathmetician, physician, biologist, and chemist? He's the one behind this?"

"I am afraid so, young lady." Arpeggio lamented in a sorrowful tone. "Similar to you, I assume, I looked up to him in during my younger years. He inspired me to use my powerful mind in ways I could never imagine on my own despite my small stature."

"How do you know for sure it was him?" Bentley inquired with sad tone of voice.

"Because he revealed himself to me." Arpeggio answered plainly. "I suppose he wanted to enlist my genius in his syndicate. To be perfectly honest, if this was a decade ago I would have most likely took him up on that offer."

"So now you're going to tell us that you're a changed man?" Sly exclaimed, crossing his arms in disbelief.

"To can choose to not believe me if you wish, but that is what I am telling you." Arpeggio confirmed.

Neyla stood up and walked over to Arpeggio. She was still shaking a bit,but had managed to regain her composer mostly. She wrapped up her whip in a circle and attached it to a hook on her side that was sticking out of her pants. "If you believe their story, then so do I Arpeggio."

"Really, now?" Sly mumbled. Hearing this out of Neyla was even more shocking after what she did.

"Can somebody please explain what's goin' on here?" Jean Bison spoke up in a heavy southern accent.

The Contessa turned to him and answered. "In short, the Cooper Gang are after the very people to imprisoned us in here. And now we are to team up with them to take this Master out."

"Sounds fine with me." Jean Bison replied. "Been needin' to let out some pent up aggression as it were, and this guy sounds like the perfect target."

"Arpeggio." Bentley exclaimed. "Do you have any idea why they captured you five? I mean besides wanting you in particular to join forces."

"I am uncertain." Arpeggio responded. "He didn't give me a lot of information yet, which was a smart move on his part. Perhaps he intended to brainwash us?"

"My head does feel all hazy and such." Jean Bison commented. "Like sumun' been pokin' n prodin' round' in there for sum reason."

"Dimitri." Arpeggio said, turning to the purple iguana. "I am most surprised to see you already working for the Cooper Gang."

Dimitri grinned and responded. "Dis only be on le temporary basis, bro. Cooper broke me out of prison in Venice, Italy, so I agreed to lend them information on the whereabouts of le purple hippo, who had sense left le gang. Sum time later I helped them with a job in Holland, and in exchange the helped me find me grandpappa's hidden divin' gear n treasure. I enjoyed our partnership so much I decided to lend em me services in future jobs as well. But tis never permanent."

"Wudja say?" Jean Bison said in confusion.

"Do any of you remember anything before you got captured?" Penelope asked.

"All I remember is savin' some more baby penguins." Jean Bison replied, rubbing his left temple. "After that I got frozen again. And the next thing I knew I woke up here."

Rajan spoke next. "I don't recall much after my capture. I was betrayed by my own daughter," he used his clawed finger to point directly at Neyla, "after which I was sent to prison. I've been repressing my prison memories, because they were quite unpleasant. Once I got out I became a rug salesman. Then, one day, a few masked figures came into my shop. They beat the hell out of my, I was way outmatched. Then the next thing I knew I woke up here."

"Wait." Sly cut him off, holding both of his hands up in front of his face in disbelief. "Did you say that Neyla is your daughter?"

"Are you surprised, Cooper?" Neyla responded teasingly. Her tone was beginning to back to normal now, but there were still traces of hesitance in it.

"Um…yes?" Sly replied sarcastically.

"So, let me get this straight." Murray interjected. He pointed his finger starting with Neyla, then later going to Rajan. "You not only betrayed us, Carmelita, Interpol, and Arpeggio, but also your own father!? And you want us to trust you!?"

"I honestly don't give a damn weather you trust me or not." Neyla responded in a harsh tone of voice. "That's your choice."

"I am not sure if my word means any more than hers." Arpeggio replied. "But I assure you that neither Neyla nor I have any intention of harming you this time. We have been to hell. We have absolutely no interest in going back."

Sly gazed at Bentley, and Bentley just gave a small sigh and a shake of the head in response.

"I am skeptical too Sly, but we don't have much of a choice now." Bentley lamented. "Even Angel's syndicate haven't been able to take down the Master, we will definitely need their help."

"Alright, I guess you guys are on board then." Sly said finally after a few seconds of silence. "But I worn you, if any of you betray us, you will regret it. Our Gang is much larger than it used to be."

All of a sudden Neyla began sniffing, then crouched down to the ground, unleashed her claws out of her hands and feet, and took out her whip, hissing. From out in the hallway through the door they entered the Gang could see another wave of guards. Neyla was about ready to pounce, but Sly stopped her, giving Penelope enough time to press some buttons on a remote control, causing the drill giant robot to reach their underground location and effortlessly kill all of the guards in a matter of seconds. After that the robot dug its way back up to the surface, and everyone in the room began heading out. The group was lead by Sly, who was the fastest on his feet, with Neyla, whose speed equals his, running side by side with him. Behind them were Jean Bison, Rajan, Murray, and Jing King, as they were the physically strongest of the group, and The Guru, who was sitting on Murray's shoulder. Behind them were Dimitri, Contessa, Jean Bison, Rajan, and Arpeggio. And trailing at the very end of the pack was Bentley, Penelope, and Carmelita. Carmelita was the best sharp shooter in the group so she decided to keep her distance, Bentley needed to do some more work on his laptop as he ran, which also meant that he had to put his wheel chair on auto drive, and Penelope wanted to remain with Bentley. Penelope took out a short cutless, the very one that she used to defeat Captain LeFwee many years ago, Carmelita took out both of her shock pistols, Sly took out his shock pistol and his cane, Neyla still had out her whip, Rajan and Jean Bison still had out their staffs, Dimitri still had out his harpoon gun, Jing King had her hands coated in yellow fire, The Guru wiggled his fingers causing purple smoke to surround his body, and Bentley used five mechanical arms that protruded out of his wheel chair to to hold bombs which were also stored in his wheel chair just in case he needed them.

After a few minutes of constant running the group reached the stairwell, proceeded up the dank, dark, and wet corridor, and finally arrived back at the rubble that was once the Master's Castle. As soon as they did, however, the noticed that all four of the robots were destroyed, and that Jeremiah, Jerome Potomus, Tony Kamehameha, Jim Coheed, and Conquering were the culprits behind the destruction. Penelope pressed some buttons on her remote control to attempt to activate the robot at the hideout, but nothing happened, so she assumed that it was the same case for that one as well. All five of the enemies stood before the Gang. They were preparing to attack when several choppers with the symbol for Angel's syndicate on them flew overhead and dropped dozens of bombs. This managed to distract their assailants long enough for the Gang to make a break for it. As they ran Bentley pressed some buttons on his laptop, and a few seconds later the team van, Sly's car, and Dimitri's car all drove up. Dimitri was confused as to how Bentley had control of his car, but didn't take time to worry about such a trivial matter. Dimitri got in the driver's side of his car, Rajan got in the passenger's side, Jean Bison got in the back right side, and Neyla got in the back left side. In terms of Sly's car, Sly got in the driver's side, Carmelita got in the passenger's side, Jing King got in the back right side, and Arpeggio got in the back left side; Jing King helped Arpeggio out of his birdcage and set him on the seat, laying his birdcage on the floor, the birdcage overlapping her feet. Regarding the team van, Murray got in the driver's side, Penelope got in the passenger's side, and everyone else went through the back door, Bentley and Contessa sitting right behind Murray, and The Guru sitting right behind Penelope. Before long the driver's spotted Angel's vehicle and followed her through several back alleys.

The enemies were following closely behind but eventually, using by following Angel, they were able to avoid capture and loose them. Once they were safe Angel stopped her car and got out, everyone else following suit. Four guards, one in the passenger's side and two in the back seat were joining her. The alley that they were in was unbelievably cramped, so Bentley, Penelope, Sly, and Carmelita had to direct everyone so that there was enough room. Dimitri, Contessa, Neyla, Jean Bison, Rajan, and Arpeggio were placed on the left of the alley, in front of Angel's car, while The Guru and Jing King were positioned at the right of the alley, behind Sly's and Dimitri's cars and the Cooper Gang. This way, Sly, Bentley, Carmelita, Penelope, and Murray could speak with Angel in the middle. Angel's three guards turned on their incredibly bright flashlights to provide light. They stood between Angel and her car.

"What's the plan?" Murray inquired. He panted every little while, and his voice sounded urgent.

"Right now, you guys need to get the hell out of here." Angel demanded matter-of-fact, pulling a white card out of her pocket.

"What about you?" Sly asked in concern, pointing his cane at her as he did.

"You need to worry about yourself." Angel exclaimed. "I've lasted this long fighting the Master's syndicate, I think I can survive a little while longer. Without his Castle here in Monaco he'll have to retreat soon anyways. No matter how you look at it, we won Monaco back, and I can't thank you enough."

"It's our pleasure." Sly said, giving his trademark cocky grin. "I'm just sad we couldn't finish off Jerome, Jeremiah, Tony, Jim, and Conquering while we were here."

"That's fine." Angel responded. "These kind of things take time. By the way, take this." Angel handed the white card to Sly, which he accepted with a confused expression on his face. "It's the contact details for an associate of mine."

"What's his name?" Sly asked.

"Shotgun." Angel replied without hesitation. "I have a confession to make. When you first arrived here and you showed me that strange calling card, I lied when I said I didn't know who it belonged to. It belongs to Shotgun. I didn't mention it at the time, but I didn't know if I could fully trust you yet. But now I do, and you deserve to know. He runs his own criminal syndicate, who are also fighting against the Master. I'm sure you'll get along with him, especially since he's done business with your father before."

This statement shocked Sly more than anything. He gave a puzzled expression before responding. "Did you know my father by chance?"

Angel smiled. "Indeed. He was a great man. A wonderful thief. And a loving father. And you are just like him. I'm sure Conner would have been proud of you, Sly Cooper."

"Will we ever see you again?" Murray asked. His tone was sorrowful, but he still tried his best to keep the masculinity that he's known for in it.

"Of course." Angel stepped forward and grazed the fingers on her left hand across his chin, tracing the length of his cheeks until she reached the back of his head. "You and everyone else will. The moment that you're ready for an assault on the Master himself. Or, should I say, Aleksandr Artem. When you are, I will bring the full force of my syndicate, and we'll take that bastard down." Angel turned around and headed for her car. Before she got in she turned her head slightly and said, "See you around, Murray." When she said his name she rolled her tongue sexily; this caused Murray to blush, and everyone to look at him with dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

Everyone got back in their vehicles in the same positions and before and drove out of the alleyway, exiting through the opposite end that they entered. It was only moments later when the Master's associates arrived. All of the normal guards were in their own vehicles, while Jerome Potomus, Jeremiah, Tony Kamehameha, Jim Coheed, and Conquering were all flying through the air, contained in magic bubbles generated by Conquering with her magic. Once they arrived the bubbles popped and the five of them landed on the ground.

"I'm really getting sick of that Cooper Gang." Tony boomed. He then turned to Jerome. "Why haven't you done something about your son?"

"I would if I would be allowed to hunt him down." Jerome protested with venom in his voice.

"Relax." Jeremiah cut in. "I have a plan, but I need your complete cooperation. We need to focus on taking out Shotgun."

"You're serious?" Jim exclaimed, after which letting out a large, vicious laugh. "Shotgun's syndicate is larger and more fierce and powerful than Angel's. Please explain how we're going to take him out?"

"By receiving the Fiendish Five and the Doc, that's how." Jeremiah responded. "With their aid, killing Doc will be easy. Hell, we might even be able to return here and kill Angel afterwards."

"Are you sure they'll cooperate?" Conquering replied.

"I'll make them." Jeremiah demanded. "We're out of time, if we don't take out Angel, the Cooper Gang, and Shotgun, then the Master's plans will fail. And if that happens, we'll be at his mercy. Tony, head back to Hawaii. Conquering, head back to Australia, and Jerome, head back to Alcatraz. Jim, you'll stay with me. I have a few things to receive from our underground prison here in Monaco, and I have to hurry before Angel's men invade it."

"Understood." Tony replied. "One more thing. When is the Master going to meet with us? He's supposed to be our leader, but we almost never see him."

"In a couple weeks, hopefully." Jeremiah theorized. "I'm going to meet with him in a couple days to discuss that very thing, along with a few other things. He's a very busy man, but our plans are winding down and it won't be long before we'll all have to group together in order to make the final assault."

"Sounds good to me." Jerome responded, resting the palm of his hand on the side of the building. "We've got our forces, we've almost got a time machine, it won't be long before the Cooper Clan's history is gone forever."

With that, all of the guards go back in their cars and drove away, and Conquering used her magic to make bubbles appear around herself, Jerome Potomus, Tony Kamehameha, Jeremiah, and Jim Coheed, floating them all away. Elsewhere, Sly's and Dimitri's cars and Murray's van were driving down the highway. Bentley was typing away at his laptop, occasionally looking up and then looking back down again. Penelope was tinkering with her RC vehicles, and would occasionally look over to observe the progress of what Bentley was working on, after which turning her attention back to her own work. She had several screwdrivers of varying sizes in a small bag which she set on the floor of the van by her feet, and that she would occasionally dig inside of. The bag also contained tones of screws, nails, nuts, and bolts, also of varying sizes. The Team Van was on auto-drive to give Murray a break; Murray was in the back laying on his stomach in the middle, playing a hand held video game console and seemingly having a blast, a large, dopey smile plastered on his face, his thumbs moving a mile a minute as he played. After awhile Bentley looked up and finally spoke.

"Looks like we're going to Hawaii." Bentley said in a confident tone of voice.

"Hawaii?" Murray responded in a confused tone of voice, pausing his game and looking up. "Not that I'm complaining, it's been awhile since I've been there, but why?"

"Angel just sent me several locations that we need to hit, and Hawaii is one of them." Bentley explained. As he talked he stopped typing for a moment. "Apparently Tony's base of operations is in Hawaii, so I figure we can go and take him out. After that we can go to Australia, where Conquering is held up, then Alcatraz Island, which is being controlled by Jerome. These are three of the heaviest hitters, so they should be our top priority. Plus, according to Angel her contact, Shotgun, is also in Hawaii, so that would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

"Do you have any idea where we'll find this Aleksandr Artem guy is located?" Murray inquired.

"Unfortunately no." Bentley replied. "Even though Penelope and I have looked up to him for years and studied his work, we've never actually seen what he looks like because of how elusive he is. He rarely does interviews, and even when he does it's well known that he uses a stand-in rather than appearing himself, a body-double in an attempt to keep his true identity hidden. Few individuals even know where he lives, and those who do are forced under threat of legal action to keep it hidden."

"Do you think we should split up? That way we can take out Tony, Jerome, and Conquering much quicker." The Guru suggested in his own native language.

"I suppose it might be a good idea." Bentley agreed with a sad tone. "I am not a big fan of the idea, but we have to speed up the operation. Once we get to the hideout in Paris I'll explain the plan to everyone. By the way Murray, pick it up. Paris is quite awhile away, and we need to step on it."

"Roger that!" Murray exclaimed, pressing his foot all the way down on the gas. Sly and Dimitri, who were driving behind Murray, quickly followed suit in an attempt to keep up with him. "By the way Bentley, any idea why my father is the warden of a prison? I know he used to be a bouncer in the past, according to Angel, but he doesn't seem like the type of person that could tolerate running a prison."

"No idea." Bentley lamented. "We can discuss that later, right now we just need to focus on reaching the hideout."

A few days later the entire Gang entered Paris, France, and arrived at the hideout. It had been awhile since Bentley and Penelope had been at this safe house, and years for the rest of the Gang, probably since they took out Dimitri. The hideout was an average sized Parisian, mostly square building, with a light post on the top in the direct center, and several translucent windows on all sides. The door was tall and rectangular, all of the house aside from the windows were varying shades of blue, and there was a small ramp which lead from the street to the door. Only a few feet away from the hideout was a small plaza spurting clear, sparkly water, in the far distance the Eiffel Tower could be seen, and a huge piece of land could be seen nearby which Dimitri's nightclub used to sit on, but now is completely baron. There were no guards surrounding the hideout, which meant that they were able to easily drive in. The hideout had a small door next to the ramp which all three vehicles were able to drive through. After they did a door came down and shut behind them, sealing them inside. Everyone got out of their respective vehicles, entered the hideout proper, and they all gathered in the living room, having to enter through Bentley's and Penelope's bedrooms in order to do so. The living room contained a couple of rocking chairs, a couple of couches, and a round table in the center with six chairs around it. Everyone sat down. Sly, Carmelita, Murray, Dimitri, Jing King, and Penelope sat around the round table. Bentley remained in his wheel chair, and once again began typing on his laptop. Rajan sat in one rocking chair while Jean Bison sat in the other, and Neyla sat on one of the couches all alone. Contessa, due to her long legs, was forced to remain standing, and Arpeggio stayed in his birdcage. And The Guru used his magic to float up in the air, his legs crossed, purple magical smoke surrounding his body, doing a partial meditation again. The second couch remained empty.

"Okay guys, let's get down to brass tacks." Bentley exclaimed, speaking loudly so that everybody could clearly hear him. "I already discussed this in the team van on our way up here, but we're going to split up. We'll split into three groups. One will go to Hawaii which is where Tony Kamehameha is held up, the other will go to the Australian Outback to deal with Conquering, and the last will go to Alcatraz. The prison on that island is owned and run by Jerome Potomus. This will allow us to both take him out, and break out a prisoner. His name is Big Jim McSweeny, and I feel we'll need his aid."

"McSweeny?" Murray's attention was immediately caught. "I thought he was in Heathrow Penitentiary."

"He was." Penelope replied. She trailed off for a moment until continuing. "Until he tried to escape, then they took him to Alcatraz, which is one of the most secure prisons in the world."

"Last I checked Alcatraz was shut down." The Contessa exclaimed, resting her left clawed hand underneath of her chin thoughtfully.

"For a time, yes." Bentley explained. "I don't know the specifics, but from what I'm able to gather Aleksandr Artem had contacts within the prison system and took control of it, after which appointing Jerome as the director."

"So who is this McSweeny feller anyhow?" Jean Bison inquired.

"He used to be the muscle in my father's Cooper Gang, the same position that Murray has in ours." Sly answered him.

"I've already got the teams figured out." Bentley began explaining. "Murray, Jing King, Neyla, and I will head to Alcatraz. You four should group over there." Bentley pointed at the hallway that leads to his and Penelope's bedroom, and they followed suit. "Penelope, Jean Bison, Dimitri, and Carmelita will head to Hawaii. Stand over there." Bentley pointed at the front door of the hideout, and everyone did as he said. "And finally Sly, The Guru, The Contessa, Rajan, and Arpeggio will head to the Australian Outback. You guys group in the center of this room." They obeyed his orders. "We'll of course remain in constant contact, and if we need to abandon our missions to help anyone else out then that's acceptable."

"I am a little concerned about Alcatraz." The Contessa admitted. "In my early years I was a guard in that hellhole, and it's not a pleasant place to be. I doubt that we'll be able to find a hideout. Not to mention, it's located on a remote island."

"True." Bentley agreed. "In terms of travel, I have been able get us boat tickets. I have contacts with the people who runt hat ferry, and they agreed to take us there and pick us up when we are done. I also have costumes for us so that our true identities aren't revealed."

"What about our old pirate ship?" Sly inquired, looking over at Bentley.

"Penelope, Jean Bison, Dimitri, and The Contessa will require it to get to Hawaii." Bentley explained. "For the Australia Expedition I've commandeered a plane for you guys to fly on, as well as more costumes. I also have costumes for the Hawaiian members, but they won't need them for the trip over obviously."

"The only thing I'm concerned about is the hideout." Sly exclaimed. He clutched his cane in his left hand, crossed both of his arms, and lifted his left leg over his right leg. "We're lucky that Interpol didn't search this place yet, but they probably will soon. We have lots of important equipment in here that we can't afford to loose."

Carmelita looked thoughtful for a moment and then said "Gimme a sec."

Carmelita reached into her pocket and pulled out a black Google Pixel 2 XL cell phone. She also grabbed a short black USB cord, stood up, walked over and kneeled next to Bentley, and handed one end to him. He plugged that end into a USB port in his wheel chair, and Carmelita plugged the other end into her cell phone. She then did a quick dial, after there was nothing but silence in the hideout except for the phone ringing for a whole minute. Carmelita pressed the speaker button so the person on the other side could be heard by everyone.

Eventually the other side answered, and a person spoke in a high pitched, nerdy tone of voice. "Hello?"

"Hey Winthrop, it's Carmelita." She responded.

"Carm?" Winthrop replied in a shocked tone of voice. "What are you doing? You're risking a lot by calling me right now!"

"I know, but I need your help." Carmelita explained. "How fast can you get to the Paris Plaza?"

"Uh, just a few minutes where I am right now." Winthrop told her.

"Good, get here. It's an urgent matter." Carmelita ordered, after which hanging up the phone and sticking it and the extension cord back in her pocket.

"Are you sure he'll come?" Murray asked with concern.

"Definitely." Carmelita responded, walking towards the front door of the hideout. She motioned her finger for Sly to join her, who did so. "I know that I can always trust Winthrop's loyalty, even though I'm technically a criminal right now. Wait for us."

Sly and Carmelita left the hideout, shutting the door behind them, jumped over the back ledge of the ramp, stuck the landing on the ground, and ran over to the plaza. It was only moments later when Winthrop arrived. Instead of being in a normal cop car he drove up in an unassuming black convertible. His convertible had a textile roof a tonneau cover, a rear and front window and two windows in the front seat and the back seat, and a wind blocker. He parked on the side of the plaza closest to the large patch of baron land, got out, slammed the door behind him, gripping his shock pistol in his left hand, and walked over to Sly and Carmelita. Winthrop appeared to be out of breath for some reason. When he arrived at their exact location and stopped running he was panting quite intensely, a slight bit of sweat dripping from his face.

"At your service Inspector Fox!" Winthrop announced with pride and confidence, standing up straight and doing a professional salute with his right hand. This only made Sly chuckle and Carmelita grin.

"We're going to be leaving again soon, and we need you to look after the hideout." Carmelita explained. "We have lots of stuff in their that we can't afford to allow Interpol, at least beyond you, Barkley, and Rick, to get their hands on."

"I suppose that's fine, but I won't be able to do it without the aid of Rick and Barkley." Winthrop suggested. "It should be fine since they know that you two were framed just like I do."

"True. I just called you over here because I trust you more than them." Carmelita admitted. This caused Winthrop to blush slightly. "Just make sure the three of you are the ones assigned to search the hideout." Carmelita pointed at it with her left index finger.

Winthrop shook his head in understanding, after which entering his car and driving away hurriedly, Sly and Carmelita heading back to the safe house. Sly explained the situation to everyone, and with that they exited the hideout, entered their vehicles. Murray, Jing King, Neyla, and Bentley got in the team van, Murray sitting in the driver's side, Jing King sitting in the passenger's side, and both Bentley and Neyla sitting in the back, Bentley by the left side wall, and Neyla by the left side wall. Penelope, Jean Bison, Dimitri, and Carmelita got in Dimitri's car, Dimitri sitting in the driver's side, Carmelita sitting in the passenger's side, Penelope sitting in the back left, and Jean Bison sitting in the back right. And Sly, The Contessa, The Guru, Rajan, and Arpeggio got in Sly's car, Sly sitting in the driver's side, Rajan sitting in the passenger's side, The Contessa sitting in the back left, The Guru sitting in the back right, and Arpeggio sitting in the back middle, The Contessa helping him out of his birdcage, laying his birdcage across the back feet space. Rajan and Jean Bison set their staffs in the back seat by the foot positions for safe keeping. As everyone got situated, Sly, Carmelita, Penelope, Bentley, and Murray gazed around their respective vehicles. They were all skeptical about this team up, especially being in the same enclosed vehicle with these deviants. It's true that they had worked with Dimitri in the past, but he's never been that bad. A bit of a cheater when it comes to being a thief, and really eccentric, but nothing that they couldn't handle. However, the others were dangerous, and not people they were particularly interested in trusting, even for a moment. However, they knew deep down that they had no choice, that if they were to defeat Aleksandr Artem, they would need all the help they could get. This was even harder on Sly, Bentley, and Murray, as they were the ones who had to fight against them.

Especially regarding Neyla and Arpeggio. The two cars and one van exited the garage of the hideout and began driving down the heavily lighted streets of Paris, France. As the traveled Murray gazed over at Neyla. She sat in absolute silence-in fact, so did everyone-with her whip, rolled up, laying on her lap. She looked out the window, a somber expression in her eyes, her hand rested underneath of her chin. The window was opened on her side and the wind rustled through her long, flowing, purple hair-it was previously in a long, thick ponytail, but she let it down once the van began moving. Murray shook his head, attempting to put Neyla out of his mind, and turned his attention from her to his window, sticking his head out it, allowing the rough wind to blow against his face. In the back seat of the team van Bentley kept typing on his computer, and Jing King tinkered with her fireworks. She lifted her firework bazooka off of her back and set it on the floor by her feet. Dimitri's car was the fastest. He had a GPS hanging above his rear view mirror which Penelope downloaded the coordinates to the faerie that will take them to Hawaii. Penelope was trying to tinker with her RC vehicles, but was constantly distracted by Jean Bison, who would occasionally grunt, growl under his breath, and take deep, intimidating breaths of air. While Penelope had never met Jean Bison before, she knows very well how strong and dangerous he is, and his suspicious behavior didn't make things any better. Sly was the most nervous out of any of them. He was stuck in his car with three KLAWW Gang members. The only friend who joined him was The Guru, and he's not even a fighter. Sly adjusted both of the rear view mirrors which hung side by side. One allowed him to see behind the car and The Contessa, and the other allowed him to see behind the car and Arpeggio. He kept an eye on Rajan, who was sitting beside him, out of the corner of his eye.

The three vehicles drove for about an hour. Once they left Paris, they were greeted from the rear by six black Chevelle's, each with machine guns and turrets mounted to them. They began firing, startling everyone. Sly, Murray, and Dimitri picked up speed tremendously, but their assailants managed to keep up with them. Carmelita opened her window, grabbed one of her shock pistols, and began firing at them. Murray flicked a switch to automatically open up the back door of the van, and Jing King and Bentley began launching fireworks and bombs respectively. Rajan grabbed hold of his staff and fired continuous blasts of yellow electricity at the oncoming cars. Sly reached across Rajan's lap into the glove compartment. Inside was a control panel littered with dozens of shinny buttons. Sly pressed one of them, which caused a huge slick of oil to spill out from the bottom of Sly's car. Dimitri and Murray, catching wind of this sight, drove out of the way to avoid certain death, while the six cars that were chasing them slid on the oil, quickly crashing in the ditch. Just when they thought they were in the clear, twelve more cars appeared, these ones more heavily armored than the previous. And if that weren't enough, three black biplanes soared through the sky. Unlike the normal air crafts that the Aleksandr seemed to use, which were choppers, these biplanes were much faster and more swift. Thinking quick, Bentley grabbed a couple of small Tommy Guns out of Penelope's very large, brown bag, the bag which contained all of her weapons and gadgets, and he used his mechanical arms to climb out the back of the van onto the roof. Neyla joined him, unraveling her long, brown whip, clutching it in her right hand. The biplanes began dropping bombs, which Bentley struggled to deflect with his own bombs, although he did succeed every single time. Neyla leaped off of Bentley's wheel chair, high into the air, and swung her whip, using it to latch onto one of the wings of the biplanes.

After that she swung herself around and landed on top of it. She unleashed the claws in her left hand and dug deep into the top of the biplane. She unleashed twelve extremely fast strokes, after which digging in one last time and tossing off the top. She grabbed the scruff of the pilot and threw him onto the warlike street, after which jumping off of the biplane as it descended down itself. She then landed on the second biplane, but didn't have to remain on it for long as the third fired at it. She used this to her advantage and jumped away from it, the biplane being taken out by the blasts of its ally. While she avoided taking a direct hit from the missiles, the explosion of the biplane itself managed to strike her, albeit just barely, sending her plummeting to the street. Without wasting her built up momentum, she used her whip to latch onto the van and swung to the top of Dimitri's car. She leaped forward to Sly's car, then to the van, then did a large jump off of Bentley's wheel chair again. She once again used her whip to attach to the biplane, but this time she dug the end of it into the bottom. While she did this Bentley kept firing bombs at it; most of them made contact with the bombs that it was dropping, while three of them missed. Neyla swung forward up above the biplane and swung her whip like a baseball bat to direct the bombs that missed towards the biplane. With that the last biplane was taken care of and Neyla fell back down again, landing lightly and gracefully on top of Murray's van. However, she was not yet done. By now six of the twelve chasing cars were already defeated. Neyla leaped between the remaining six, hissing wildly, smashing windows and yanking all of the driver's and passenger's out, destroying the controls, and sending the cars going crazy, crashing into the ditches. Once she was finished she effortlessly jumped back over to the team van, using her whip to swiftly swing her way back through the back doors.

Bentley, wide eyed and amazed but still in a hurry, followed her, using his mechanical arms to get back into the van. After they were done Murray pressed the same button he did before which caused the back doors to close automatically. Neyla quickly returned to her seat, rolled her whip back up again, and continued staring at out her window quietly, pretending like nothing ever happened. Bentley and Jing King were staring directly at her, and Murray glared at her out of the corner of his eye, also wanting to keep paying attention to the road. Neyla could tell that they had their eyes on her, but she acted like they didn't. Her deadpan expression only confused them even more, as no emotion could be read from observing her face. As they continued to drive the sun began to set. They eventually came to a fork in the road, and they went in different directions. Murray kept driving forward, Sly drove to the right, and Dimitri drove to the left. Sly's legs were twitching. He was more tense than he'd ever been before. Not only were they currently involved in the toughest job in their lives, but Aleksandr apparently knows exactly where they're headed, and is able to send out pinpoint assassination attempts on them. They barely survived that last attack, and he feared that more would continue to come. Sly, Murray, and Dimitri all pressed the gas all the way down, wanting to arrive at their destinations as quickly as they possibly could. Almost a week later, they did just that. Dimitri stopped his car by a dock, and was greeted by a short bulldog who controlled the local ferry. After confirming their identity, the bulldog, who spoke in a gruff, intimidating voice, allowed Dimitri to drive his car on board. Before they did, all four of them qucikly changed into their costumes that Bentley provided for them. Dimitri's disguise consisted of an orange and green T-shirt and a large white hat with a blue rim on it; he also lit a cigar and began smoking it as well.

Penelope's costume consisted of a gray business jacket cut off at just above the knees and large glasses with blue lenses. Carmelita's outfit consisted of a red skirt which extended to slightly below her knees, red lipstick, which she didn't often wear, and red high heals, which she never ever wore. And Jean Bison's wardrobe consisted of a thick, black biker shirt and aviator sunglasses. Dimitri parked it on one side where another bulldog directed him to. He shut his car off, and everyone got out of it. Murray's and the gang's experience was quite similar. They also stopped at a dock, and were greeted by a San Fransisco King Snake, which slithered over to the van. After confirming their identities, each of them also changed into their disguises. Murray took on a rather emo look, with a wig in the form of long, messy, unkempt hair that was part black and part purple, tattoos of skulls, crossbones, and barbed wire, among other things of the like, which he drew on himself with erasable marker, and a small, gray vest. Jing King wore a thin but large white and black stripped shirt and a small red fedora. Neyla adorned herself in the sexiest outfit that she could, befitting her personality, long black stockings which stretched all the way up the length of her legs, a red V-neck t-shirt which exposed the cleavage of her breasts quite prominently, red pants which were slightly tight fitting, and she tied her hair back up in a ponytail again, putting on red lipstick and red fingernail polish on all of her fingernails. Bentley put on a thin white jacket with golden rims on the end of the sleeves fastened shut by golden laces. He had a large brown hat with a red ruby on it on top of his head, and a black two string mustache clipped on either side of his nose. Once they were done changing Murray drove on board of the ferry. A nearby doberman directed them to park by the side of the ferry, after which Murray turned off the van and everyone got out to enjoy the cool nighttime breeze.

Sly, instead of arriving at a dock, arrived at an airport. He parked the car, and everyone changed into their disguises. Sly adorned in a thick, black, leather coat with a hood on it, although he didn't lift the hood over his head, a golden brace knuckle over both fists, a golden chain hanging over his neck, and a blue scarf tied over his head. Underneath of his leather coat was a light blue t-shirt, and he wore brown baggy pants and brown shoes. The Guru put on a thin yellow, white, and light brown stripped t-shirt and a green baseball cap. Rajan wore long, green pants, with the bottoms of the legs folded up once held up by a brown belt with golden belt buckle, a tan shirt with a brown tie dangling off of the neck, and brown shoes on his feet. His hair was also slicked back more than usual. Arpeggio and The Contessa weren't changed whatsoever, wearing anything different. Sly was skeptical, but they assured him that they would not be noticed around these parts. Sly and the gang made their way through the airport, which took a couple of hours. All they had to do was purchase their passports, use the bathroom one last time, and get on the planes, but the security was absolutely insane and it took way longer than necessary. Once they finally did they sat down in their seats. Sly and Rajan sat next to each other, Arpeggio and The Guru sat next to each other across the isle from Sly and Rajan, and The Contessa sat alone behind Sly and Rajan. Eventually both of the ferries and the plane began to move. Murray, Jing King, Neyla, Bentley, Penelope, Jean Bison, Dimitri, and Carmelita all took to the sea, while Sly, The Contessa, The Guru, Rajan, and Arpeggio all took to the air. Carmelita dialed on her cell phone and whispered into it, loudly enough so the person on the other side could hear her, but quietly enough so that nobody near her, even her comrades, could hear her. Nobody knew what awaited them at their destinations, but they all knew one thing. Aleksandr was unbelievably dangerous, and the toughest battle of their life hasn't even gotten close to has difficult as it would become in the future, although the extend of which they could never even imagine.


	8. The Australian Outback

_**Sly Cooper: Legacy of Thieves**_  
 _ **Chapter 7**_  
 _ **The Australian Outback**_

Winthrop shook his head in understanding, after which entering his car and driving away hurriedly, Sly and Carmelita heading back to the safe house. Sly explained the situation to everyone, and with that they exited the hideout, entered their vehicles. Murray, Jing King, Neyla, and Bentley got in the team van, Murray sitting in the driver's side, Jing King sitting in the passenger's side, and both Bentley and Neyla sitting in the back, Bentley by the left side wall, and Neyla by the left side wall. Penelope, Jean Bison, Dimitri, and Carmelita got in Dimitri's car, Dimitri sitting in the driver's side, Carmelita sitting in the passenger's side, Penelope sitting in the back left, and Jean Bison sitting in the back right. And Sly, The Contessa, The Guru, Rajan, and Arpeggio got in Sly's car, Sly sitting in the driver's side, Rajan sitting in the passenger's side, The Contessa sitting in the back left, The Guru sitting in the back right, and Arpeggio sitting in the back middle, The Contessa helping him out of his birdcage, laying his birdcage across the back feet space. Rajan and Jean Bison set their staffs in the back seat by the foot positions for safe keeping. As everyone got situated, Sly, Carmelita, Penelope, Bentley, and Murray gazed around their respective vehicles. They were all skeptical about this team up, especially being in the same enclosed vehicle with these deviants. It's true that they had worked with Dimitri in the past, but he's never been that bad. A bit of a cheater when it comes to being a thief, and really eccentric, but nothing that they couldn't handle. However, the others were dangerous, and not people they were particularly interested in trusting, even for a moment. However, they knew deep down that they had no choice, that if they were to defeat Aleksandr Artem, they would need all the help they could get. This was even harder on Sly, Bentley, and Murray, as they were the ones who had to fight against them.

Especially regarding Neyla and Arpeggio. The two cars and one van exited the garage of the hideout and began driving down the heavily lighted streets of Paris, France. As the traveled Murray gazed over at Neyla. She sat in absolute silence-in fact, so did everyone-with her whip, rolled up, laying on her lap. She looked out the window, a somber expression in her eyes, her hand rested underneath of her chin. The window was opened on her side and the wind rustled through her long, flowing, purple hair-it was previously in a long, thick ponytail, but she let it down once the van began moving. Murray shook his head, attempting to put Neyla out of his mind, and turned his attention from her to his window, sticking his head out it, allowing the rough wind to blow against his face. In the back seat of the team van Bentley kept typing on his computer, and Jing King tinkered with her fireworks. She lifted her firework bazooka off of her back and set it on the floor by her feet. Dimitri's car was the fastest. He had a GPS hanging above his rear view mirror which Penelope downloaded the coordinates to the faerie that will take them to Hawaii. Penelope was trying to tinker with her RC vehicles, but was constantly distracted by Jean Bison, who would occasionally grunt, growl under his breath, and take deep, intimidating breaths of air. While Penelope had never met Jean Bison before, she knows very well how strong and dangerous he is, and his suspicious behavior didn't make things any better. Sly was the most nervous out of any of them. He was stuck in his car with three KLAWW Gang members. The only friend who joined him was The Guru, and he's not even a fighter. Sly adjusted both of the rear view mirrors which hung side by side. One allowed him to see behind the car and The Contessa, and the other allowed him to see behind the car and Arpeggio. He kept an eye on Rajan, who was sitting beside him, out of the corner of his eye.

The three vehicles drove for about an hour. Once they left Paris, they were greeted from the rear by six black Chevelle's, each with machine guns and turrets mounted to them. They began firing, startling everyone. Sly, Murray, and Dimitri picked up speed tremendously, but their assailants managed to keep up with them. Carmelita opened her window, grabbed one of her shock pistols, and began firing at them. Murray flicked a switch to automatically open up the back door of the van, and Jing King and Bentley began launching fireworks and bombs respectively. Rajan grabbed hold of his staff and fired continuous blasts of yellow electricity at the oncoming cars. Sly reached across Rajan's lap into the glove compartment. Inside was a control panel littered with dozens of shinny buttons. Sly pressed one of them, which caused a huge slick of oil to spill out from the bottom of Sly's car. Dimitri and Murray, catching wind of this sight, drove out of the way to avoid certain death, while the six cars that were chasing them slid on the oil, quickly crashing in the ditch. Just when they thought they were in the clear, twelve more cars appeared, these ones more heavily armored than the previous. And if that weren't enough, three black biplanes soared through the sky. Unlike the normal air crafts that the Aleksandr seemed to use, which were choppers, these biplanes were much faster and more swift. Thinking quick, Bentley grabbed a couple of small Tommy Guns out of Penelope's very large, brown bag, the bag which contained all of her weapons and gadgets, and he used his mechanical arms to climb out the back of the van onto the roof. Neyla joined him, unraveling her long, brown whip, clutching it in her right hand. The biplanes began dropping bombs, which Bentley struggled to deflect with his own bombs, although he did succeed every single time. Neyla leaped off of Bentley's wheel chair, high into the air, and swung her whip, using it to latch onto one of the wings of the biplanes.

After that she swung herself around and landed on top of it. She unleashed the claws in her left hand and dug deep into the top of the biplane. She unleashed twelve extremely fast strokes, after which digging in one last time and tossing off the top. She grabbed the scruff of the pilot and threw him onto the warlike street, after which jumping off of the biplane as it descended down itself. She then landed on the second biplane, but didn't have to remain on it for long as the third fired at it. She used this to her advantage and jumped away from it, the biplane being taken out by the blasts of its ally. While she avoided taking a direct hit from the missiles, the explosion of the biplane itself managed to strike her, albeit just barely, sending her plummeting to the street. Without wasting her built up momentum, she used her whip to latch onto the van and swung to the top of Dimitri's car. She leaped forward to Sly's car, then to the van, then did a large jump off of Bentley's wheel chair again. She once again used her whip to attach to the biplane, but this time she dug the end of it into the bottom. While she did this Bentley kept firing bombs at it; most of them made contact with the bombs that it was dropping, while three of them missed. Neyla swung forward up above the biplane and swung her whip like a baseball bat to direct the bombs that missed towards the biplane. With that the last biplane was taken care of and Neyla fell back down again, landing lightly and gracefully on top of Murray's van. However, she was not yet done. By now six of the twelve chasing cars were already defeated. Neyla leaped between the remaining six, hissing wildly, smashing windows and yanking all of the driver's and passenger's out, destroying the controls, and sending the cars going crazy, crashing into the ditches. Once she was finished she effortlessly jumped back over to the team van, using her whip to swiftly swing her way back through the back doors.

Bentley, wide eyed and amazed but still in a hurry, followed her, using his mechanical arms to get back into the van. After they were done Murray pressed the same button he did before which caused the back doors to close automatically. Neyla quickly returned to her seat, rolled her whip back up again, and continued staring at out her window quietly, pretending like nothing ever happened. Bentley and Jing King were staring directly at her, and Murray glared at her out of the corner of his eye, also wanting to keep paying attention to the road. Neyla could tell that they had their eyes on her, but she acted like they didn't. Her deadpan expression only confused them even more, as no emotion could be read from observing her face. As they continued to drive the sun began to set. They eventually came to a fork in the road, and they went in different directions. Murray kept driving forward, Sly drove to the right, and Dimitri drove to the left. Sly's legs were twitching. He was more tense than he'd ever been before. Not only were they currently involved in the toughest job in their lives, but Aleksandr apparently knows exactly where they're headed, and is able to send out pinpoint assassination attempts on them. They barely survived that last attack, and he feared that more would continue to come. Sly, Murray, and Dimitri all pressed the gas all the way down, wanting to arrive at their destinations as quickly as they possibly could. Almost a week later, they did just that. Dimitri stopped his car by a dock, and was greeted by a short bulldog who controlled the local ferry. After confirming their identity, the bulldog, who spoke in a gruff, intimidating voice, allowed Dimitri to drive his car on board. Before they did, all four of them qucikly changed into their costumes that Bentley provided for them. Dimitri's disguise consisted of an orange and green T-shirt and a large white hat with a blue rim on it; he also lit a cigar and began smoking it as well.

Penelope's costume consisted of a gray business jacket cut off at just above the knees and large glasses with blue lenses. Carmelita's outfit consisted of a red skirt which extended to slightly below her knees, red lipstick, which she didn't often wear, and red high heals, which she never ever wore. And Jean Bison's wardrobe consisted of a thick, black biker shirt and aviator sunglasses. Dimitri parked it on one side where another bulldog directed him to. He shut his car off, and everyone got out of it. Murray's and the gang's experience was quite similar. They also stopped at a dock, and were greeted by a San Fransisco King Snake, which slithered over to the van. After confirming their identities, each of them also changed into their disguises. Murray took on a rather emo look, with a wig in the form of long, messy, unkempt hair that was part black and part purple, tattoos of skulls, crossbones, and barbed wire, among other things of the like, which he drew on himself with erasable marker, and a small, gray vest. Jing King wore a thin but large white and black stripped shirt and a small red fedora. Neyla adorned herself in the sexiest outfit that she could, befitting her personality, long black stockings which stretched all the way up the length of her legs, a red V-neck t-shirt which exposed the cleavage of her breasts quite prominently, red pants which were slightly tight fitting, and she tied her hair back up in a ponytail again, putting on red lipstick and red fingernail polish on all of her fingernails. Bentley put on a thin white jacket with golden rims on the end of the sleeves fastened shut by golden laces. He had a large brown hat with a red ruby on it on top of his head, and a black two string mustache clipped on either side of his nose. Once they were done changing Murray drove on board of the ferry. A nearby doberman directed them to park by the side of the ferry, after which Murray turned off the van and everyone got out to enjoy the cool nighttime breeze.

Sly, instead of arriving at a dock, arrived at an airport. He parked the car, and everyone changed into their disguises. Sly adorned in a thick, black, leather coat with a hood on it, although he didn't lift the hood over his head, a golden brace knuckle over both fists, a golden chain hanging over his neck, and a blue scarf tied over his head. Underneath of his leather coat was a light blue t-shirt, and he wore brown baggy pants and brown shoes. The Guru put on a thin yellow, white, and light brown stripped t-shirt and a green baseball cap. Rajan wore long, green pants, with the bottoms of the legs folded up once held up by a brown belt with golden belt buckle, a tan shirt with a brown tie dangling off of the neck, and brown shoes on his feet. His hair was also slicked back more than usual. Arpeggio and The Contessa weren't changed whatsoever, wearing anything different. Sly was skeptical, but they assured him that they would not be noticed around these parts. Sly and the gang made their way through the airport, which took a couple of hours. All they had to do was purchase their passports, use the bathroom one last time, and get on the planes, but the security was absolutely insane and it took way longer than necessary. Once they finally did they sat down in their seats. Sly and Rajan sat next to each other, Arpeggio and The Guru sat next to each other across the isle from Sly and Rajan, and The Contessa sat alone behind Sly and Rajan. Eventually both of the ferries and the plane began to move. Murray, Jing King, Neyla, Bentley, Penelope, Jean Bison, Dimitri, and Carmelita all took to the sea, while Sly, The Contessa, The Guru, Rajan, and Arpeggio all took to the air. Carmelita dialed on her cell phone and whispered into it, loudly enough so the person on the other side could hear her, but quietly enough so that nobody near her, even her comrades, could hear her.

Nobody knew what awaited them at their destinations, but they all knew one thing. Aleksandr was unbelievably dangerous, and the toughest battle of their life hasn't even gotten close to has difficult as it would become in the future, although the extend of which they could never even imagine. Almost a day later, Sly's, The Contessa's, The Guru's, Rajan's, and Arpeggio's plane stopped at an airport in Australia. The group got out, still adorned in their respective disguises. After bypassing airport security they left and hitched a couple of taxis. Sly, The Contessa, and The Guru rode in the first taxi, and Rajan and Arpeggio rode in the second taxi. They road in the taxis through the city they landed in all the way to the outback, and after that they continued to ride for awhile longer yet. The outback itself was pretty baron. Only a wasteland and a few trees here and there as far as the eye could see, with a huge range of mountains barely visible in the far distance which they were driving towards. The skies were clear, hardly a cloud could be seen. While they were riding in the taxis the gang talked about the plan. Sly in one Taxi and Arpeggio in another taxi turned on hand held communicators so that all five of them could take part in the conversation. The taxi drivers were special contacts of Bentley's who were fully aware of what their goal was and where they were headed. The taxi drivers simply remained silent and allowed them to chat with each other. Once they reached their destination Sly and The Guru recognized this area very well. It was the same location where the Cooper Gang fought against the miners that ravaged the outback many years ago. Unlike back then, there were no drills digging into the sacred land, no miners ravaging the pristine countryside. Even though Conquering was held up around this area, she still had a massive amount of respect for the outback and for nature.

When they entered the outback The Guru had to use his magic to cloak both of the taxis, or else they would have been discovered by Conquering, who was using her magic to continuously monitor the land where she was living and holding her base of operations. The taxis glowed with purple magical energy, and The Guru kept meditating so that he would be able to keep this up for such large objects plus the bodies inside. The taxis eventually came to a stop next to a small pile of rocks, the top of which containing a small house with a few windows. The five members of the Gang got out of the taxis. The Guru hung off of Sly's back, his small, delicate arms and hands dangled around Sly's neck. He was visibly tired, breathing slightly and drifting in and out of sleep, but he still managed to keep the Gang cloaked. He wasn't having to use as much energy as before, because when they got out he stopped cloaking the taxis because they were driving away. As they left, they were speeding much faster than before, due to Conquering being capable of locating them now. The five went around the rock, made their way up a dirty ramp made out of stone, and ran over to the safe house. They entered one after the other, first Sly and The Guru, then The Contessa, then Arpeggio, then Rajan, Rajan shutting the door behind them. They walked up a small staircase and went through another door. Conquering must have gotten rid of the round table and chairs that they used last time because they were nowhere to be found. Sly lifted The Guru off of his back and set him down in nearby corner of the hideout. The Guru was moaning constantly. Rajan, The Contessa, and Arpeggio stood in silence in the other three corners. The purple magical energy that surrounded them slowly began to dissipate, so Sly had no time to rest. He reached into the red pouches attached to both of his legs and pulled five small rods.

He pressed a button on each, which all caused all five of them to grow longer and wider. Sly left the hideout and began placing them around the area. The climbed to the top of the house and placed the first one down, int he exact center of the roof. When he did several tiny mechanical legs extended out of the bottom of the staff and dug into the roof. After that the top of the staff, which contained a circular orb, began to glow bright purple, along with the hideout and the group of rocks that the hideout was on top of. Sly looked to his left and jumped off. He fell decently far below and spire jumped on a point that was attached to a wire. The wire connected the main rock to another rock. Sly landed on that other rock, leaped over to another pile of stones right next to it, and jumped to another nearby building. The further he got away from the hideout, the more the purple energy that surrounded him began to fade away. Now he was on one of two buildings that were connected to each other. The one he was standing on was more like a small house, and the other one was more like a tall utility building. Sly bounced off of a bouncy pad on the house to the highest point and place down the second staff. Once the orb at the top began glowing, he was once again replenished with The Guru's cloaking magic. Attached to the side of the tower that was opposite of the house was a couple of wires. The wires were connected to another tower across a nearby lake. The second tower was next to another rocky hill, and on top of the hill was an extremely tall crane that was continuously going around in circles. Attached to the wires was a platform which kept going back and fourth. Sly hopped on the platform and rode all the way across. After that he climbed up a pipe that was attached to the crane. Once he reached the top he landed on the spinning crane, and put down the third staff.

When h left the previous area The Guru's magic once again began to fade away, but when he activated the third rod the magic returned to him once again. The next location was the furthest from a safe spot of them all. He leaped, flipped, and ran as fast as he could through the area. He jumped off of the crane and the gigantic rock that it was on and landed next to a black wooden bridge which lead him across the lake to the ground level. The lake looked disgusting, it was green, had smelly fumes radiating from it, and had bones and garbage floating around in it. Next to the shore was a small brown pickup truck which had a couple of brown barrels in the back. He ran a little way until he came to another bridge. This one was made out of some kind of metal, probably steel, and lead to an overwhelmingly massive black and gray truck. It must have been at least20 feet tall, at least 30 feet wide, and at least 40 feet in diameter, or possibly even more. On top of the big truck was had six small crevices. He placed the fourth rod in one of the holes and activated it. By the time he got to the big truck he was too far way from The Guru's magical aura for it to protect him from detection, but it didn't take much longer for him to activate the fourth rod, which completely remedied the situation. Attached to the truck, a little bit higher than the first metal ramp was a second one, which, took Sly to another building. The main building looked like another gray house, but the part that he was standing on was a much smaller shack on the edge of the main house. Sly paraglided over to another, smaller house, and then jumped over and climbed up a pipe, which brought him to to a platform high off the ground. The edges of this platform were made of steel, and the middle was made of some sort of plexiglass. The platform was attached to a wall. The wall held a door, and next to the wall was another bouncy platform.

He bounced up, and ran over to a nearby fence with a large hole uncleanly ripped in the center. This was the old stockade that The Guru was held captive in many years ago. He entered the stockade and climbed a pipe attached to the wall. The wall was on the left side, and on the right side and back side was the rest of the fence, and beyond the fence was the edge of the cliff. Sly climbed to the top of the building where he placed the fifth and final rod and activated it. This area was the least distance that he had to travel away from one of the rods, so The Guru's magical energy barely started to disappear from him at all. After that Sly started to walk over to the far end of the upraised building that he was standing on, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard an eerily familiar voice. He returned to where he placed the final staff and gazed in to the stockade. Before his eyes was Conquering chatting with someone who Sly didn't recognize. This other person was an Echidna who was much smaller than Conquering. It had small, black eyes, a long, gray noes, thin, brown fur, and countless long spikes all up and down his back, the tips of which were glistening, probably because of how sharp they were. Sly quickly slid back and ducked to the ground so that he could remain out of view, but slowly crawled as far to the edge as he could so he could listen in on their conversation.

"Mistress, the Cooper Gang have arrived in this area." The Echidna explained with a high pitched, squeaky voice.

"You're joking, right?" Conquering stammered with great fury, gripping her staff tightly and jabbing it down on the ground once. "How did they find out our location, Lachlan!"

"Unsure." Lachlan responded. "Perhaps it was just a lucky guess since this is where your previous Master once lived."

"I have been too busy lately, I did not even notice." Conquering lamented, her anger subsiding slightly. "I would say that I should finally take your advice and rest for awhile, but if they have already arrived then there is no time for that."

"I have already informed the Sorcerer's Guild, and they are preparing to ambush them." Lachlan said. "Also, we managed to take out the two taxi drivers that delivered them. They will not be a problem."

"Good." Conquering said. "When you find their hideout make sure to leave Guru to me."

"Understood." Lachlan obeyed. "Looks like I have another job to do now, though."

Sly was rising up sightly, preparing for his departure, but Lachlan launched a bunch of spikes out of his back. When he did, the spikes immediately replaced themselves. The spikes hovered in the air for a few seconds and then targeted Sly. Sly flipped backward, stuck the landing, and slid on his feet, and flipped backward again, landing down on a lower part of the building. He then spun around in a hurry and began running. When he reached the end of the building he leaped down and latched his cane on a wall jump hook. He released it and latched onto one below it, and then released that one and kicked off of the side of the building, turning around in midair, and spire jump on a point that was attached to the string, the string being attached to a pole, the pole being attached to the side of the mountain which he was right next to. Sly didn't slow down even for a moment because Lachlan hurriedly jumped to the top of the building that Sly was previously on and continued firing spikes at him. Sly jumped off of the spire jump point and landed on a stone platform in front of him, then moved over to a hook which he swung off of with his cane, then maneuvered to another spire jump point, then another one. After that he reached another spire jump point, except this one was just a stick that was attached to the rock wall. After that he leaped off of that point and landed on the ground, leaped down again, bounced off of a small green trampoline, flipped in the air, landed on the ground again, and immediately bolted forward. As he ran, he briefly looked back, and saw that he was still being approached by Lachlan. Despite his small size, he was unbelievably fast, could jump high, and still continuously firing spikes at Sly. In fact, he seemed to be a bit faster than Sly, as he was steadily catching up to him. By this point Sly had to actively avoid the spikes, either by running to the side, ducking his head, jumping over them, or jump flipping over them.

When he reached the green lake he jumped over to a platform. This platform was balancing on a long rock which extended down into the green water. He then jumped over to off of the platform, arriving on the other end. Sly continued into an open area which contained six deactivated drills on the ground. He continued sprinting as fast as he possibly could passed the drills, through an alley that was scrunched between a huge rock wall and one of the small buildings that Sly was on before, jumped on a bounce pad, and finished off by spire jumping and rail walking back to the hideout. Without wasting any time he opened up the safe house, ducked inside of it, and slammed the door shut, hurrying up the stairs. It was immediately after that when Lachlan arrived as well, but he kept going since he already lost sight of Sly. The last spikes he fired hit the safe house but didn't even so much as scratch it. He landed in front of the door, the leaped onto a small rock platform extended far into the air on the side of the mountain. Sly remained motionless for a moment until Lachlan was completely gone to make sure that he didn't make too much noise and get noticed. Once he was long gone Sly finished climbing the stairs and entered the second door to the hideout. The Contessa, The Guru, Rajan, and Arpeggio were all waiting for him in the same positions that they were in when he left. Outside his escape was pretty tense and noisy, but inside the atmosphere was still tense, this time from being quiet and awkward. Sly wasn't sure which he preferred less than the other. He broke the silence and explained the situation to everyone, that he finished placing the rods, but that the taxi drivers that brought them here have been eliminated, and because of that it may be possible that they'll be located at some point as well. The Contessa, The Guru, and Arpeggio all pondered the situation, looking thoughtful, while Rajan just looked confused.

Sly leaned back on the closed door to the hideout and released a large sigh. He gazed around the hideout, looking thoughtfully. The Guru was sitting in one corner, leaning against the wall. His eyes flicked from open to closed constantly. He was trying to get some rest since he was able to relax his magic now, but knew that they had no time to take a break, especially since their foe was one of his old students. Sly felt bad for him, but knew that there was nothing that he could do. Contessa was standing by a wall giving off a puzzled facial expression, scratching her chin with her left clawed hand. She was raising and lowering each of her feet every once in awhile, but weather it was because she was anxious to make a move or her feet were aching was unclear. Arpeggio was also clearly thinking carefully as well due to his facial expression, but otherwise was completely motionless inside of his birdcage. Rajan was the one that made Sly really nervous. He was standing next to another wall, gripping his staff in his left hand. The heel on his right foot was placed up against the wall and was shaking viciously, plastering a slightly irritated expression on his face. The windows of the safe house were able to let some light in, but Sly flicked the light switch next to the front door to turn on the light on the ceiling. The light was pretty old and rustic. The light that it provided wasn't tremendous, only slight, and the light itself was dangling off of the ceiling by a few inches attached to a thin cable. No longer able to stand how fidgety that Rajan was Sly turned to him and spoke, his voice calm and collected.

"Hey, big guy." Sly said, putting his trademark smirk on his face. "You ready for action?"

"Got some idea, boy?" Rajan responded in a growling tone of voice.

"I want you to head out there and start taking out guards. Any guard you see." Sly explained. "I know it seems kind of minor, but Conquering has tons of underlings, and we need to get rid of as many of them as we can. I'll let you know when we need your help for something else."

"Sounds good to me." Rajan replied. He set his right foot flat on the ground, stopped leaning on the wall, and started trotting towards the front door. Sly stepped to the right so that he could get out of his way. "I'm angry and my joints are all stiff from riding in a damn car for several hours. I need a good workout." Rajan left the hideout, slamming both doors behind him. He was so tall that he had to duck in order to get through them.

"One more thing." Sly said, and Rajan paused for a moment. He handed Rajan a binocucom. "Take this. It's really simple to use. It'll help us remain in contact. Also, we can give each other the coordinates to our locations if we need immediate assistance." Rajan took the binocucom and left, after which Sly handed one to Arpeggio and to The Contessa as well. "Arpeggio, you should remain here to monitor hour progress and feed us information." Sly stated, looking directly at him. "Sorry to bench you like that, you proved in Monaco that you're capable of combat, but not as much as the rest of us, plus you're the smartest one here."

"I understand, Cooper." Arpeggio responded. "I do better behind a computer rather than on the front lines anyways."

Sly turned to The Guru. "You're coming with me, Guru. If you want to continue resting then you can just ride on my shoulders, but I'm going to require your help to hunt down Conquering."

"Not a problem, Cooper." The Guru responded in his own native language, in a low tone of voice. The Guru stood up on his feet, waddled over to Sly, and climbed up onto Sly's back.

"Contessa, I need you to capture some guards and interrogate them. Use whatever means you feel is necessary, I can't afford to be picky about your methods at the moment" Sly ordered.

"You seem pretty intelligent, Cooper." Contessa replied. "Able to know and analyze all of our skill and assign us to jobs accordingly."

"I can hold my own." Sly said, after which opening the front door to the hideout. "We should head out right away. We're supposed to meet up with the other two groups in a week, so we have that long to take care of Conquering."

Sly continued talking, telling them about everything else that he encountered, and then Sly and The Contessa left the hideout, Apreggio remaining in the center of the room, slowly typing on a computer with his small, feathery wings. Arpeggio briefly used one feather to grab his monocle, which was laying in his birdcage right next to him, and place it on his left eye, adjusting it appropriately before he continued. Outside of the safe house the Contessa shot a long, thick stream of white webbing out of her butt, attached it to the top of the part of the mountain that was to the left of the safe house, and swung all the way up. She didn't stop flying through the air until she reached the top. After that Sly could faintly hear her scurrying around as well as agonizing screams, which probably came from local guards. Sly just released a deep, complacent sigh, and continued on his way. He sprinted forward, going fast enough to make good time, but not going too fast so The Guru didn't fall off of his shoulders, who was still clearly tired and thus not holding on incredibly tight. Once he got passed the green lake Sly could see Rajan in the distance. He was hurriedly, effortlessly, and seemingly happily killing every single guard that he saw. Most of them were able to be taken out with a simple kick, punch, or claw swipe, but others, who were able to protect decently durable magical barriers, the barriers ranging in color from green, to red, to yellow, to orange, to blue, had to be taken out with one of Rajan's large lighting blasts. To unleash one of these he gripped his staff tightly with both hands, raised it up in the air, and began generating yellow electricity on the top. It quickly grew in size continuously for several minutes until it reached its apex, after which Rajan swung his staff downward, firing his barrage of lightning, completely decimating ten or twelve guards at a time.

When he did this more guards attempted to attack Rajan from behind, but he was capable of managing his electrical staff with one hand and clawing, punching, or kicking enemies in the other direction at the same exact time. Rajan was rather careless while engaging in combat, as the guards were constantly hitting him with magic spells and shooting him with guns over and over again, but they didn't seem to do much to dent his flesh. The thing that confused Sly the most was how fast he was. Rajan easily sprinted, jumped over, and slid around oncoming enemies at an unbelievable speed. He must have been going 30-40 miles per hour, much faster than Sly could perceive with his eyes. This was strange because Rajan wasn't nearly this fast when Murray faced off with him many years ago, if he was then he would have most likely been able to win. Before long Sly left view of Rajan, which he was happy about. The blood that was shed splashed on the ground and even sprinkled down over Sly. He's usually calm and able to handle a lot, and blood doesn't usually fade him, except for when blood is being shed a tremendous amount at a time. Sly leaped over to a rock platform which was teetering on a rock that was sticking out of the green water, then jumped over to another platform, this one being attached to a nearby rock wall but separated from the normal walkway. Attached to the rock wall was a rectangular black door. Sly grabbed the silver handle, opened up the door, walked through, and slammed it shut behind himself. On the other side of the door was some strange place. Instead of in inside location they saw an open area with a dark sky, juxtaposed to the relatively bright sky outside. Directly in front of them was several average sized, brown holes in the ground which were oil wells, each of them connected to each other by small, thin, black extension cables, several small, brown, explosive barrels, several small, gray, explosive barrels, and a large hooked crane, the hook hovering over a much larger hole in the ground.

In the distance they could see a massive desert which contained several electrical fences and six extremely tall, steel, yellow towers, surrounding an even taller, more bulky, brown tower. In between the electrical fences and Sly and The Guru's location slightly to the left was a pile of huge rocks and stones stacked in disarray. There were eight electrical fences in total, two placed on each of the four sides. Each electrical fence consisted of four strings of electricity connected by two poles that were sticking out of the ground, and each pole was positioned a decent distance away from each other. Sly kept running straight, in the direction of the pile of rocks. He came to a lake of blue water, double jumped and paraglided to get across it, and landed on gently on the ground. In this area, which was on another side where the fences were at, he saw several more large oil drums connected by small black cords, and a bunch of white explosive barrels, which were slightly larger than the brown ones. Sly was a bit closer to the fences this time around, so he could see that the six smaller towers had extremely thick steam streaming from the top of them, and that all seven of the towers were broken down, rusty, and rustic, they looked like they were about to fall apart. Sly kept sprinting as fast as he could until he reached another lake of blue water. He jumped and paraglided to get halfway across it, landing on a humungous rock floating in the center. He jumped and paraglided one last time to finish getting across, landing like a feather on the other side. This part didn't have any more oil drums, bu tit still had a large hole int he ground, a generator which seemed to produce rocks, plus a bunch of both white and brown explosive barrels. Sly was much further from the towers than he has been before so the smoke coming out of the towers and the bad condition of the towers were almost entirely unnoticeable to him now.

The only other thing of note here was a small catapult on the far end, as well as some sort of brown button right next to it. The Guru, who seemed to be more conscious and recovered by this point, explained to Sly that these towers were the epicenter of Conquering's operations. They were made of equal parts technology and black magic, and she was using them to create an army of undead warriors powered by her dark arts, although the exact method to do so and the need for such an army was still a mystery to him. Sly stopped for a moment and looked over by the towers. He saw a few guards patrolling, slowly walking around them and the electrical fences in circles. All six of the guards that Sly could see were Dingos. They were light purple in color and had decently long, bushy tails which had yellowish-white tips on them. They wore an open green vest with a white shirt underneath, reddish-purple pants, thick black work boots, light green gloves, and a white bandage on their tails. Each of them carried a small white, brown, and gray musket in their left hand, and a long, thick, brown whip in their other hand. Each one of them appeared to be slightly shorter than Sly himself. Sly took The Guru off of his shoulders and set him down next to a nearby rock so that he would be harmed in the upcoming battle. He then gripped his cane in his right hand, pulled out his shock pistol with his left hand, and charged toward the guards. He was moving so fast that it wasn't long before they noticed him, but it didn't seem to matter all that much. Sly took out the first one with six consecutive shock pistol shots. The guard wasn't able to react on any level beyond being shocked by the attacks. The guard landed on the ground and caused a loud thud which drew the attention of the other five. All five of them spun around in a hurry and began running in a strange bouncy trot towards Sly.

The guards split up and circled around Sly. Three of them swung their whips at him. Sly slid and ducked underneath, the whips cracking loudly on the ground and missing Sly entirely. Sly, being right next to one of them, swung his cane to trip the guard. He flew in the air and landed on his back, after which Sly twisted his feet, spinning back around, and landing three nine head shots with his shock pistol, three shots per head, sending all three of the guards tumbling down to the ground. Immediately after that he took the hook of his cane and jabbed it into the throat of the guard that he previously tripped, sending him into a state of being unconscious. The last one approached Sly form behind and swung his whip at him. Sly held up his cane in defense, but the guard's whip tied around the hook, and the guard took Sly for a ride, using a surprising amount of physical strength to swing Sly over his head. Sly landed on his feet on the other side of the guard and tried tugging on the whip for a moment. The Dingo moved slightly, his feet scratching on the ground, but not far. Instead, he swung Sly around him in a circle at great speed. Sly fired off a barrage of shock pistol shots, but missed every single one of them due to having trouble aiming because of not having stable footing or a stable view. He used his body weight and all of the strength that he had to lower his feet to the ground, and then lifted the Dingo up in the air. He swung him around and smacked him into one of the towers, after which barraging him with a load of shock pistol shots, finishing him off. Before Sly could compose himself a bunch more guards appeared from behind the towers, entering through the door that Sly and The Guru previously did. Aside from more Dingos, the guards consisted of several other animals as well. One of them was a much larger Dingo with gray fur, long, gray, yellow tipped tails, and was adorned in a white tank top, blue pants, black boots, purple gloves, and a tan slouch hat.

They were carrying a large blusterbuss with a flashlight attachment to them. Another was a kangaroo that was just as tall as the first Dingos. They were green in color witha yellow snout and black legs. They wore purple shirts, cowboy hats, white bandages on their tails, and they carried pouches that held small Joeys. The Joeys were yellow in color and wore goggles, white helmets, and pink shirts. The guards that took the lead were a group of Western Quoll. They were in the front of the back due to their advanced speed, they sprinted along with no effort at all. They were incredibly short, with partially gray and partially brown bodies, long, brown tails, pointy ears, a small pink nose, black eyes, and dozens of small white dots on their backs. Sly averted his attention back in The Guru's direction, who was running up to Sly as he did. The Guru hopped on Sly's back and used his magic to cast a purple shield around both of them. Without uttering a word Sly lunged toward the center tower. He flipped his cane around, aimed it upward, and fired an incredibly long wire out of the end. It wrapped around one of the metal bars that made up the tower, and Sly yanked on it and lifted his feet off of the ground, which caused him to rise up and swing around to the top. His feet landed like a feather on the metal bar, and continued jumping up to higher bars. As he looked below him he could see all of the Dingos firing their guns at him, which gave him the added challenge of having to dodge while also continuing to scale the tower; some of the attacks did hit him and were deflected by The Guru's shield, but he didn't want to take the chance of The Guru's shield failing. He also saw the bottom of the tower, which appeared to have several drills. A gigantic hole in the ground indicated that they had once been digging, but the drills were currently shut off.

Once Sly reached the top he lands on a platform and sees a control panel filled with a bunch of buttons and levers. Behind them tons of shots from the guards below them flew past them and high up into the air. Sly bent down to one knee and pressed several buttons, shifted down one of the levers, and looked below the platform to witness the drills activating and continuing to dig into the ground. After that he remained on the top and continuously fired shock pistol shots below for several minutes until he successfully neutralized every single one of them. After that he double jumped off of the tower, unleashed his paraglider, and glided all the way down to the ground. Once he reached the bottom he put his paraglider away and landed lightly on the ground. After that he turned around and walked over to the hole in the ground. To his surprise the drills seemed to have already revealed a secret passageway. The drills were still continuing to dig into the ground, but this still intrigued Sly. As the ground continued to be destroyed the drills would extend deeper and deeper. Sly wondered why Conquering would have shut off the drills if they were so close to achieving their goal, but he didn't have any time to think about it, as he could hear some more reinforcements trotting closer to them from afar. Sly fell down into the deep hole in the ground. When he reached the bottom platform, the lowest one that the drills had revealed at this point, where he found a door. He went through it and saw a strange room with pictures attached to the walls. The Guru explained that most of the pictures were of other students he had in the past, most of them being sibling students of Conquering, and the largest one was The Guru's master, who passed away a long time ago. Sly also saw a picture of The Guru himself in one of the corners.

Some of the pictures had gigantic X's through them, which led Sly to believe that this was Conquering's form of a hit list, and the ones with X's were the ones he's already killed. Sly took out his binocucom and he snapped a picture of the three walls and on the ceiling, that area containing the picture of The Guru's master with several other pictures littered around it. After that he left the room and jumped further down the hole, as another key location had been revealed. Realizing that the next platform was beyond the drills, Sly placed his feet on the rock wall and kicked off, swiftly launching through two of the deadly drills, just barely missing their razer sharp blades, and landed on the next platform, after which going through the next door. This room was surprisingly large, with great length and great width. Straight ahead of them on the furthest wall was a gigantic super computer which had three massive screens. Each screen possessed some strange map image, but since the maps weren't moving or anything Sly figured that nothing was currently going on with them. The rest of the room was filled with about twenty small control stations, each one possessing a computer that was turned on, and a large, black, rolling chair for the controller to sit at. The super computer had ten of those chairs lined all across its base. Sly used his binocucom to take three close up pictures of the super computer, one for each screen, and he also snapped a shot of all twenty of the smaller control stations. He also saw a bunch more pictures on the two side walls and the ceiling, which he also snapped pictures of. Sly walked throughout the room slowly, scanning his eyes across all of the computers, taking in the sight. None of them looked particularly interesting to him, that is until he saw one that had the words "America" typed in small text on the top of the screen.

Once he did he shuffled through his binocucom's camera to reorganize the photos, making sure to put that one at the head of the bunch. Very close to the super computer, on the left hand side wall, was a tall, brown, rectangular door. Sly went through the door, slamming it behind himself. This next room was another control room. This one was much smaller than the previous, and went around in a circle rather than a square. Half of the walls had a gigantic control panel littered with countless buttons and levers, with the center of the control panel having a screen that was much smaller than the two in the previous room. Slightly above the control panel were two strange looking, average sized mirrors, circular mirrors. Sly reached into his pouch, pulled out two rocks, and tossed each one of them up towards the mirrors, smashing them to bits just in case they happened to be disguised security cameras. In front of the control panel was a long, crescent-moon shaped table. It was far enough away for people to stand by the control panel, but not enough room to place chairs. The table was littered with papers, folders, and had 12 chairs sitting by it. The ceiling had six long florescent lights which illuminated the room; this made it easier to see than the previous room, which had no lights whatsoever, so it was kind of dark. Sly snapped a picture of the control panel, a close up shot of the small screen, and then walked over behind the table and took a look at the papers. He saw some strange documents, which he quickly shuffled through. Several papers had suspicious plans of assaults. Sly collected all six of them, folded them neatly into small squares, and stuffed them in his pouch. He then walked across the room and went through another door. Beyond this next door, however, gave them a strange sight. A seemingly endless baron plain was before them. As far as the eye could see was a ground almost entirely void of grass, but tons of weeds, bushes, and cactuses scattered everywhere in disarray.

The ground glowed with a strange orange color. Some of the weeds were light green, while others were dark green, but all of the cactuses were dark green. The cactuses came in various shapes and sizes. The most common was a Saguaro. They were extremely tall, about twice the height of Sly, with four protrusions, more than less the length of the primary sprout, sticking out of the side all around it, the prickly spikes on the cactuses appearing to be as long as Sly's index finger. Another type of cactus they saw was a Prickly Pear. It was a large trunk-forming segmented cactus which seemed to be 5-7 meters with a crown of possibly 3 meters in diameter and a trunk diameter of 1 meter. It contained Cladodes which were green to blue-green, some of them bearing few extremely tiny spines, while others being completely spineless. The Prickly Pears had flat, rounded Cladodes, large, smooth, fixed spines, and small, hairlike prickles. The flowers on them were large, axillary, and solitary, with a perianth consisting of distinct, spirally arranged tedpals and a hypanthium. The tamens were numerous and in spiral or whorled clusters, and the gynoecium had numerous inferior ovaries per carpel. One of the less common catuses that caught Sly's eyes was the Peyote. They were the smallest ones of them all, grew the lowest to the ground, and contained numerous, crowded shoots. They had yellow-green shoots, were mostly flattened spheres with sunken shoot tips. They contained significant, vertical ribs consisting of low and rounded humps. From the cusp areoless arises a tuft of soft, yellowish or whitish woolly hairs. Spines were absent. Flowers were pink or white to slightly yellowish. Some of these cactus also contained flowers, and others a small, pink, edible fruit.

The club-shaped to elongated, fleshy fruits were bare and more or less rosy colored. Sly looked to his left and saw a small group of Mammillaria, a type of cactus that he couldn't see anywhere else. The distinctive feature of this cactus was the possession of an areole split into two clearly separated parts, one occurring at the apex of the tubercle, the other at the base. The apex part was spine bearing, and the base part was spineless, but bore some bristles or wool. The base part of the areole bore the flowers and fruits, and was a branching point. The apex part of the areole didn't carry flowers. The plants were small, elongated, the stems were 20 centimeters in diameter, and 40 centimeters tall, clearly tuberculate, solitary to clumping forming mounds of up to 100 heads and with radial symmetry. The tubercles were round. The roots were fleshy. The flowers were funnel-shaped and were more than 40 millimeters in length and diameter, and were greenish-yellow in color. Above them was a clear sky with a few white clouds floating around, in clear contrast to the darkness that it was last time they were outside. Sly looked behind himself and saw that the door he walked through was attached to nothing, just the air. He opened it again to see that the control room was still there. He then looked behind the door and saw the baron plain. His confusion only intensified when the door somehow magically disappeared without a trace. As soon as he shifted his vision back in front of him again, he gazed up to the sky and saw a dozen clusters of energy, ranging in color from orange, to purple, to pink, to blue, to green, to red, to yellow. They slowly grew larger as time went on, until they formed strange creatures that were cloaked over most of their bodies, but clearly skeletons with their hands, feet, and faces, and were probably slightly taller than Sly.

Without hesitating these weird specters flew at great speed towards Sly and The Guru. Sly began running into the distance, swiftly jumping over, spinning around, or sliding under these odd enemies. He had no idea where he was going, he just knew it would be bad if he was touched by these creatures. The Guru informed him that this room is a special illusion created by Conquering, probably to stall them for time, and that in order to get rid of it they would have to defeat these ghosts, but only magic attacks would work on it. Therefore, Sly agreed to follow every order that The Guru gave. Once Sly got far enough away from them he turns around and prepares himself in a fighting stance, his shock pistol raised in one hand, and his cane raised in the other, one leg in the front and the other leg in the back, his knees bent slightly. One of the ghost's charged forward toward him, his great speed creating ripples in the wind. Once this ghost, one of the orange ones, got just a couple of feet away from Sly, he quickly dodged to the right, and barraged it with six shots from his shock pistol. This didn't damage it at all, but it caused the ghost to change direction, uncontrollably flying up. The Guru then commenced to wiggle his fingers and create a vortex of purple magical energy above the first ghost; as soon as the ghost crashed into it, it was immediately destroyed, the explosion being incredibly massive but somehow not causing any shock waves or releasing any level of force on The Guru and Sly. While The Guru dealt with the first, Sly had to multitask by avoiding three more. These ones were red, blue, and green respectively. The red and blue ones presented long ranged magic blasts, and the green one had a shield, which The Guru explained not only serves as a defense, but would also harm Sly if he were to get hit by it. The red ghost was easily diverted and sent out of control by one cane strike, after which The Guru effortlessly dealt with it with another cluster of purple magical energy, which the ghost was forced to fly into. The blue ghost flew over Sly.

Sly slid underneath of it, and while he was sliding, shot it with 10 consecutive shock pistol blasts, which redirected it, after which The Guru taking it out just like normal. The green one was faster and more vicious than the previous two. He would continuously jut towards Sly, Sly doing a quick, desperate backward jump to avoid him. Sly attempted to raise his shock pistol and cane several times, but this ghost was so quick that he would always get too close to Sly after Sly had backed up for this to be possible. After awhile Sly decided to spin dodge to the side. This allowed Sly to whack the ghost with his cane; however, once his cane made contact with the green shield, green electricity was generated and Sly was knocked far back, landing hard on the ground and sliding far away. Sly was, however, able to scramble to his feet in a hurry, and he was far enough away now to unleash a load of shock pistol shots on the ghost. While the ghost was charging toward Sly at great speed Sly shot him twenty times, which caused him to go out of control just like the previous three, and The Guru destroyed that one just like the ones before. After that the rest of the ghosts were effortless to dispatch. The pink ghost, the blue ghost, the purple ghost, the yellow ghost, another purple ghost, another red ghost, and another orange ghost, and another pink ghost, which was the last one. After they were done Sly landed on the ground, light as a feather. He was panting heavily, but grinning with satisfaction at their victory. As soon as they were done the land around them flickered, and the outback illusion quickly disappeared. What they saw instead was a very small, dark, concealed room, strange because the illusion made the room seem endlessly vast. The Guru explained that the previous magical illusion not only messed with the victim's vision, but also their perception of time and space.

Sly ran for the next door, which was right in front of them, but three bars dropped in front of the door, blocking it off. Sly, shocked, stopped in his tracks and turned around quickly, and witnessed many security turrets appearing out of the wall all around the room. They quickly began shooting at him. Sly started moving again as fast as he could. He bolted to the furthest corner of the room, using his cane to defend himself, the bullets from the turrets deflecting perfectly off of his cane. The Guru used his magic to cause purple magic to coat his feet, which allowed him to walk up and along the walls in this room. Due to this enhancement Sly was able to traverse the entirety of the walls and the ceiling. Sly would use his cane to destroy turrets that are nearby, and The Guru would use magic blasts to destroy turrets that are a distance away. This scuffle lasted for about twenty minutes, until Sly and The Guru successfully destroyed all of the turrets. After that Sly, who was standing upside down on the ceiling, fell down to the ground, landing light a feather on his feet, The Guru's purple magic disappearing from Sly's feet. However, Sly didn't have any time to rest, because a large hole opened up in the exact center of the room, and out of it came a a very tall, extremely wide, gray, steel tower. Attached to the tower were two long, thick, mechanical arms, as well as several more turret guns. The turrets began firing and the arms began attempting to grab Sly immediately. The Guru pretty quickly succeeded with destroying the turrets on the tower, but Sly's job in defeating the tower itself was much more difficult. He slid under the left arm, the arm crashing its clawed hand on the floor, creating a huge crack. Sly flipped around his cane and fired the grappling line that was inside of it, wrapping it around the arm, and began yanking as hard as he could. The arm, in retaliation, pulled back, causing Sly to slide on his feet.

He gritted his teeth and grunted with great pain as he pulled. Due to this, The Guru created three thick ropes made out of purple magic and attached them to the wall behind them. When he did this the strength that was pulling on the mechanical arm seemed to be greatly amplified, as Sly was able to keep walking backward, albeit still with some difficulty, until he eventually yanked the arm completely off. When he did the arm flew across the room, the tower itself fidgeting a lot from the damage, Sly flying back into the wall behind him, making sure to turn to his side so that The Guru doesn't take the full brunt of the fall. Sly stood up right away and held his left arm with his right hand, which had a light bruise on it due to that being the part of his body which hit the wall, but he didn't have any time to rest as the tower turned around and started attacking again with its remaining mechanical arm. Sly jumped on the wall behind him and kicked off of it with great force. He landed on the remaining mechanical arm, and then hopped onto the top of the tower and made his way to the other side, after which wrapping the grappling line inside of his cane around the last arm. He started pulling back once again. For a few seconds Sly was pretty successful on Sly's part, but all of a sudden the tower used an unexpected technique. The mechanical arm was attached to the tower with an appendage that looked like the ligaments that connected the bones together in the body. The ligament extended and reached forward. in response to this, The Guru used his three magic ropes just like last time. This started to turn the tide in Sly's favor again, until a small rocket appeared on the arm and fired up, propelling the arm forward. This started to turn the tide into the tower's favor again, until The Guru creates three more magic ropes, attaches them to the wall behind him, and this allowed Sly to completely pull off the final arm of the robot, sending it flying into the left side wall.

After that the tower juddered around a lot, began to spark tremendously, and then it exploded, Sly turning his back away from the explosion and covering his own face with both of his arms so that neither of them would be too affected the smoke and dust that was released because of it. After that Sly turned and noticed that the bars blocking off the door were gone. Not wasting any time he opened it up and went through it, slamming it behind himself. This next room wasn't a room at all; they were inside of an overwhelmingly massive crater, which was deep inside of a large sandstone rock formation known as Ayers Rock. When Sly initially entered this area he was standing on some sort of wooden bridge. Knowing that the land of Ayers Rock is usually piping hot Sly reached down and grabbed a rock, after which rising back up and throwing it. Normally the heat of Ayers Rock would burn normal rocks like that, but nothing happened. Sly then crossed the index and middle fingers of his left hand and closed his eyes shut tightly, after which slowly stepping out on Ayers Rock. He started with a toe, and when he realized that it wasn't burning him he placed his whole foot down, after which walking both feet on Ayers Rock, more confused than ever. In the center of Ayers Rock was a large crater, and hovering over top of the crater was another drill. Like the last one, it was inactive, but it looked as if it had been working not long ago. Sly recognized this place. Back before The Guru joined the gang, Sly, Bentley, and Murray had to clear all of the miners out of Ayers Rock by capturing Giant Scorpions and setting them free. Ayers Rock appeared at first glance to be just how they left it, but an ominous aura did seem to be shrouding the area, which gave both Sly and The Guru the shivers. All of a sudden Sly heard a strange noise. He instantly took a fighting stance and raised his shock pistol in his left hand, aiming it all over Ayers Rock, turning from one direction to another vehemently.

For a moment he didn't see anything, but then a bunch of random rocks and stones began levitating in the air and coming straight for him. Cursing his luck, Sly began to run again. All of the rocks were coming at him at great, intense speed. Many of the rocks Sly was able to dodge or or deflect with his shock pistol or cane, but a few of them did manage to strike him, slicing across his arms, legs, chest, and back, leaving gaping cuts and dark bruises all over his body. Once he reached the side of Ayers Rock The Guru put his magic shoes on Sly once again so that Sly would be able to sprint all the way to the top; once he reached the top he kicked off as hard as he possibly could and back flipped all the way to the drill tower in the center. He landed on the platform on the top, quickly lowered one of the levers and slid the other lever to the side, and then jumped all the way down before any of the rocks could strike him, paragliding to safety. Seconds later the drill began working again, and continued to dig even deeper into the land of Australia. Once Sly reached the ground he made his way for the hole and jumped inside, not wasting any time. Once he was inside of the hole the rocks seemed unable to reach him. Unlike the previous hole, this one didn't have any plaltforms and doors. Instead, there was one, long, dark, seemingly endless drop. He dropped down for three whole minutes. As he continued to get deeper and deeper it got darker and darker until he couldn't see a single thing. Eventually he reached the bottom. He still couldn't see the ground or where he was traveling, but regardless he used his paraglider to land on the ground safely. Once he did The Guru cast a magic spell which created a purple light to illuminate this next room. Both Sly and The guru were equally confused.

Apparently this room didn't exist last time that he was here, as far as to his knowledge. What they saw next shocked and disturbed The Guru. Lined across the huge circular wall was dozens and dozens and dozens of prison cells, and inside of them were captives which The Guru recognized as many of his old students. They all ranged in height and weight, were split between both male and female, and each of them wore almost nothing; the men just wore loin cloths on their groins, and the women wore loin cloths on their groins and their chests. The animals ranged from Western Quoll's, Kangaroo's, Koala's, Hippo's, Echidnas, Forest Kingfisther's, Goulds Goana's, and Dolphins, the last of which not just being behind cells, but also swimming around in fish tanks so that they would be able to remain alive. Some of the bulkier prisoners, in addition to being locked behind cells, were also chained to the ground or to the walls. As they walked around the room The Guru simply observed in horror as his former students had their freedom taken away. And then suddenly him and Sly heard a voice from behind them. They turned around, and the new sight made The Guru even more depressed. His eyes closed and squinted tightly in terror. The Guru explained to Sly, in a low and saddened tone of voice, that this elderly man was his master and biological father, whom he thought was deceased for many years. Sly and The Guru walked up to the man. He wasn't confined with chains and ropes, probably due to his feeble nature caused by old age. He was a purple Koala around the same height as The Guru. When he noticed Sly and The Guru he stood to his feet and walked over to the stone bars of his prison cell, having to use a large stick to walk, most likely due to his legs being extremely weak. His eyes were closed, but he was still somehow able to see where he was going.

"My son." His Master said in their own native tongue. His voice was low and grizzled, and he attempted to sound as happy as he could despite his current situation. "How wonderful it is to see you again."

"Master." The Guru responded, also in their own native language, in a concerned tone of voice "What has Conquering done to you?"

"Not just me, everyone." The Guru's Master replied. "Everyone who Conquering has ever worked with during his aboriginal training have been imprisoned by him."

"Do you have any idea why?" Sly inquired, earning himself a confused expression by The Guru's Master.

"This here is Sly Cooper. You can trust him. He is a close friend of one of my students. I have trusted him with my life on multiple occasions." The Guru explained.

The Guru's Master looked pleased, and continued. "I am not entirely certain, but I believe he is trying to drain our mystical powers to use for his own nefarious purposes."

"With the magic power of this many aboriginal students, there's no telling what he might able to accomplish." Sly lamented sorrowfully. He walked up to the cell and placed his hand on it. "Just a moment, we'll get you out of here. Although this rock is too strong for me to break."

Sly pulled out his binocucom and typed for a bit, after which Rajan's name came up. It beeped for a few seconds, which signified that Rajan was on his way to help. "One of my teammates will be here any moment to help. In the meantime…"

Before he could continue speaking, a cluster of black energy appeared out of nowhere behind them. Sly turns around with a start, and before him Conquering appears, teleporting in. The moment she teleported in she was floating in the air, but after she did he slowly lowered down to the ground, the magical energy that she used to make her entrance disappearing. Sly took a fighting stance and immediately started shooting a barrage of bullets at her with his shock pistol, but every single one of them were effortlessly deflected by Conquering's magical shield. The shield is always invisible to the naked eye except for the moment that an attack touches it. The shock pistol shots reflected off of the shield and flew away in disarray towards the nearby rock walls. Thinking fast, The Guru climbed on top of Sly's head and raised his walking staff up in the air, summoning six tall purple pillars of magical energy, which landed in the ground around Conquering. Conquering reached out her left, furry hand, and placed it on one of the bars, releasing a massive vortex of black electrical energy, and succeeded in blowing the bars away. Sly immediately began running as fast as he could in a circle around Conquering. Sly continuously fired his shock pistol, and at the same time The Guru kept summoning more poles and launching them at his former student. For a little while Conquering continued to easily block or dodge all of their attacks, which seemingly no hint that her defense would be penetrated. Sly and The Guru did notice, however, that each individual barrier could only last for up to 10 seconds at a time, and that whenever Conquering wanted to create a new one, she had to blink her eyes twice in a row extremely fast. With this knowledge, The Guru placed a purple magic aura around Sly's feet again, which allowed him to run up the rock wall like before. When he reached the top he kicked off of them and soared all the way over Conquering's head.

He then fired his shock pistol dozens of times. The first few struck Conquering's last shield, which had yet to disappear, but after it did the rest struck Conquering directly, catching her off guard, sending her flying way back into the nearby rock wall. When she struck the wall much of the debris broke off and crashed on the ground, and her staff flew out of her hand, flying far away from her position, after which Sly landing light as a feather on the ground, still pointing his shock pistol in her direction. For a moment there was silence, but then Conquering rose to her feet, walking through the smoke that was surrounding her because of her fall. She held her left hand out to her side and began wiggling her fingers, which quickly caused her staff to return to her, which twirled through the air as it did. Extremely angry, gritting her teeth, Conquering raised her staff in the air and began generating more black lighting, but all of a sudden Rajan appeared, leaping into the gigantic crater from above. While suspended in mid air he generated a massive amount of yellow lightning on the end of his rod, wave it down and fired it. It came directly for Conquering in a streaming motion, unbelievably fast, and struck her. Even her newly crafted shield was effortlessly shattered by Rajan's attack. The attack caused Conquering to fly back into the rock wall again, this time tons of debris breaking loose and collapsing on top of her. After that, Rajan came plummeting down to the ground and leaped towards her. He flipped his staff around and jabbed Conquering in the chest with the opposite end of it, just as she was beginning to rise, albeit very slowly, from the debris. Rajan continued to press his staff into Conquering's chest, which began to dig into her flesh slightly. Sly quickly made his way to Rajan and grabbed his staff with both of his hands, pulling in the opposite direction to stop him. Rajan simply growled and clawed Sly away.

This action drew blood, leaving red marks across Sly's chest, and sent him flying a little ways back, after which Rajan continued pressing his staff up against Conquering's chest again. Sly scrambled to his feet, and The Guru cast a purple magical barrier to separate Rajan from Conquering. The barrier consisted of many small poles which dug into the rock wall that Conquering was standing next to, making it impossible for her to escape. He then summoned a couple of thick, purple, magical ropes and tied them tightly around Rajan, restraining him. Rajan struggled viciously, his muscles bulging and his teeth gritting, but it was no use, Rajan was unable to even so much as scratch or dent these restraints. He eventually ran out of energy and refrained from struggling, but he continued growling and glaring at Sly with venom in his eyes. The sharpness and hungry appearance of his teeth made Sly hesitant, but he still stood his ground.

"You can't kill her." Sly said matter-of-fact. He pointed his shock pistol at Rajan just in case he managed to escape.

"Why the hell not?" Rajan blasted with a booming tone of voice. "Spare me your self righteous morals. This bitch imprisoned and tortured me for a whole year, and I intend to rectify this! That is how Lord Rajan pays his debts!"

"You misunderstand me." Sly explained in a calm one of voice. "I'll let you have your revenge in due time. But we need information about Artem's plans, and she is a great person to interrogate for this thanks to her close connections with him. After that, you can do- what you want. I have no intention on injecting my morals into someone else's life."

Rajan looked away, displeased, and The Guru released the restraints that were previously around him. He then transformed the barrier that was between Rajan and Conquering into a circular prison which Conquering was trapped inside of. Directed by Sly, Rajan moved around the crater and used his claws, his teeth, and his staff to destroy the stone bars that were imprisoning The Guru's kin. Everyone poured out of their prison cells, and The Guru floated Conquering a little ways up in the air. The Guru then, with the help of his Master and several of the others who were freed worked together to create magical bubbles around themselves, Sly, and Rajan, and with a snap of their fingers they all disappeared. Moments later they reappeared in front of the hideout, on the rock that the hideout was on. There were many dozens of The Guru's kin that came with them, all of them spread out on the rock that the hideout was on, and many other nearby rocks. Sly started slowly counting them, pointing as he did, reciting the numbers in his own head, but he stopped after he reached the number fifty. For a brief moment Conquering managed to break out of the purple magical bubble that The Guru was holding him in. She then began running away, and soon picked up flight, but she was struck out of nowhere by a silky white substance, which wrapped around her several dozen times, causing her to fall down to the ground, bouncing several times and then rolling back to Sly, who lifted his foot up and rested on on their prisoner, Conquering's face directed upward, a look of terror crossing her teeth. Right after that The Contessa landed right next to Sly, which is when it was revealed that this white, silky substance is in fact spider web. Despite how thin each strand appeared to be at first glance, Conquering wasn't able to budge, even more so than The Guru's purple magical restraints. The Contessa walked up to her, bent over, and grazed her left clawed hand cross Conquering's chin, a sadistic grin crossing Contessa's lips, a terrified expression crossing Conquering's face.

"Better be good, little girl." The Contessa warned. "I'm not in any better of a mood than Rajan, and unlike that tiger, who will just kill you outright, I'll torture you before you die if you piss me off."

Sly looked at Conquering's face, which began to well up with tears and began to grin, grabbing Contessa's clawed hand, moving it away form Conquering's face. "That's enough. Thanks for your help." The Guru turned to his students and student siblings and began speaking to them, in their native language, in a loud, commanding tone of voice. "You are all free now! I will retrieve you if we need your help, but in the meantime you're free to resume your lives in this wonderful outback." He then turned his attention to his Master. "You should remain here. I want to ask you a few

questions."

"Understood." The Guru's Master responded respectfully.

After that all of The Guru's students and student siblings put purple magical auras around themselves so that the guards wouldn't notice them and began leaving, some of them running away and some of them flying away. The Contessa picked up Conquering and The Contessa, Rajan, Sly, and The Guru walked through the front door of the hideout, trotted up the stairs, then made their way through the second door, Sly slamming both doors behind them. As soon as they entered Arpeggio refrained from typing at his computer and looked up to acknowledge their arrival. The Contessa threw Conquering into the back left corner with a rough swing, and everyone else in the room surrounded her. Rajan and The Contessa hovered over her on the right and left respectively, Sly stood in the middle, The Guru climbed on top of Sly's shoulders again, and Arpeggio, due to his lack of physical or magical abilities, remained behind all four of them, standing in between Rajan and Sly so that he could still peek through their shoulders and see Conquering, The Guru's Master climbing on top of The Contessa's shoulders. Sly leaned Conquering up against the corner of the wall whereas before she was laying down rather uncomfortably which may have made it kind of difficult for her to listen to their questions and answer them correctly. Sly gripped his shock pistol in his left hand and his cane in his right hand, cocking his shock pistol and pointing it at Conquering. Rajan raised up his staff, generated a little bit of yellow lighting on the end, and pointed it at Conquering, gripping it with both of his hands, taking a fighting stance, putting his right leg behind him and his left leg in front of him, bending his knees slightly.

"The first thing you're going to do is explain, in great detail, what Alekxander Artem is planning." Sly demanded matter-of-fact, his voice very loud.

"And what if I don't?" Conquering inquired in a condescending tone of voice.

"I don't usually like killing or torturing people who can't fight back, but I think I'll make an exception just this once if you don't cooperate."

"Well I guess I'm screwed then, because I genuinely don't know." Conquering answered. "Believe it or not, I'm not actually part of Artem's inner circle. He doesn't trust me and I don't trust him.

I'm nothing more than a contracted soldier, if you will. I just do what I'm told. Hell, I don't even know what Artem looks or sounds like."

"How do you normally get in contact with him?" The Guru asked. His voice was low and gave off an air of disappointment in his former student.

"I cast a magical screen, which is able to connect with some magical items that I gave him." Conquering responded. "If for some reason the connection is sketchy he also knows enough magic to hold it for long enough, considering that our conversations never last very long."

"Do it." The Contessa ordered.

She unraveled a little bit of the webbing around Conquering, which allowed her hands to be free. At first Conquering gave a disobedient facial expression, turning her face away, but Sly pressed down the handle end of his cane hard into her left hand, and the immense pain caused her to obey the Contessa's orders. Using what little space she had with her hands she clapped them together, causing black magic to circulate them, then she placed them both out in front of her, her palms wide open. After that, all of a sudden, everyone turned around and looked at the door to the hideout. Instead of seeing a different screen like they expected, what they witnessed was the door itself actually turning into the screen. The window, the handle, and the door itself entirely disappeared. Instead they were gazing at some sort of dark room. After a few more moments a sketchy, shadowy, tall, skinny, silhouette appeared in front of the screen. Sly, The Contessa, Rajan, and Arpeggio gave off incredibly confused facial expressions, Sly, The Contessa, and Arpeggio adding fascination, but Conquering, The Guru, and The Guru's Master weren't weren't confused at all, all three of them seemed to know exactly what this was. Conquering looked pleased, while The Guru and The Guru's Master looked sad and disturbed by his usage of black magic.

"Conquering…what a sorry state you've been put in." The Master said in a deep, growling tone of voice.

"Ah shut up you little freak and help me out of this situation!" Conquering demanded, beginning to struggle wildly once again but to no avail.

"Before that, Sly Cooper." Artem said with a curious tone of voice. "You have been causing quite the havoc with my operations. Having to fix my base of operations and replace defeated or killed agents has cost me lots of money."

"You better prepare yourself for the future then, because I plan on bringing your entire syndicate down." Sly exclaimed in his trademark cocky tone of voice and giving off his trademark cocky smirk, crossing his arms and pointing the hook of his cane at Artem.

"Pitiful child." Artem exclaimed, after which releasing a menacing, slow, growling chuckle. "This arrogance of yours will be the death of you one of these days. Even with the help of Angel's syndicate, you stand no chance of victory. My forces number in the billions. They have secretly taken over the government's of many major and minor countries, and I have bases in all of those countries as well as other countries that I have yet to take control of. Just give up, boy."

"You sound pretty confident when hiding behind a screen like a coward!" Rajan bellowed. On impulse he charged up his staff and fired a large bolt of yellow lighting at it, but the screen simply absorbed it and made it disappear.

Conquering simply chuckled nefariously at this action. "What, did you think that this was a portal that would lead you to Master Artem? I'm not that stupid you big oaf." Rajan responded to this by jabbing the end of his staff into Conquering's chest again, which shut her up.

"Don't worry big guy. I'll reveal myself soon enough. It's almost time." Artem responded.

"What's the point in keeping yourself hidden any longer?" Sly inquired. "We already know your true identity, Aleksandr Artem."

"Oh do you, now? Hm. I really wonder." Artem exclaimed. "By the way Conquering, there's no need for me to save you. I believe that one of your allies is almost there right now."

Sly, The Contessa, The Guru, The Guru's Master, Arpeggio, and Rajan were all shocked by this statement and began looking around, but all of a sudden one of the windows next to the front door of the hideout shattered, and Sly was struck in the neck with something, and shortly after he collapsed to the ground. It only took two to send him down. With Arpeggio, The Guru, and The Guru's Master it only took one, with The Contessa it took five, and with Rajan it took ten. After that Lachlan came barging through the destroyed window. Sly figured that it was the spikes on his back, which were doused in some sort of poison, that they were attacked with, and he couldn't move to stop him. Lachlan quickly, without hesitation, used the spikes on his back to completely rip The Contessa's web that was tying up Conquering to shreds. As he did the magical screen that they were using to chat with Alekxandr Artem disappeared, and after he did both Lachlan and Conquering made their way for the shattered window, standing side by side and glaring back at their seemingly defeated foes. Rajan wobbled around in a state of dizziness for a moment, but then slowly began to rise up, although for a moment he could only remain on his knees, his left palm open and touching the ground, and his right fist punching the ground. His staff was laying beside him. He picked up his staff with his had that was previously clutched into a fist and fired a bolt of yellow lighting at them; Conquering, however, simply cast a black magical barrier, which completely absorbed Rajan's attack and disintegrated it into nothingness. Following Conquering's orders, which she relayed using finger motions, Lachlan leaped out the window and began running and jumping far away. Conquering then levitated herself up in the air and began floating towards the window. She laughed meniaclly and taunted them as she flew away, eventually disappearing in the distance.

Rajan bolted over to the window, grabbed one of the shattered corners with one of his clawed hands and growled, gazing out into the deep, baron outback. Despite his keen sense of sight, he could no longer see Lachlan or Conquering, which was a testament to their speed. Sly was able to stand up by this point, but he was still a little bit wobbly, so he leaned over against a nearby wall whenever he was able to. The Guru and The Guru's Master were conscious, probably because of their magical power, but they were hardly able to move at all; because of this Sly, one at a time, grabbed them and leaned them up against a wall right next to each other. Arpeggio was still passed out, probably due to his lack of muscle mass and no magical power to speak of, so Sly set his cage up straight, picked up Arpeggio, and placed him inside of the cage. Sly looked over to The Contessa, and saw that she was already on her feet. The Contessa and Rajan were the only two who were able to keep on their feet without any difficulty whatsoever at the moment. "Well, that got us absolutely nowhere." Sly lamented in a low, disappointed tone of voice.

"I didn't have a chance to mention it earlier." The Contessa responded, which turned everyone's attention to her. "But when I was out patrolling the outback I located Conquering's base of operations. It was too heavily guarded for me to be able to infiltrate it myself, but I was able to place countless webs around the area that are too tiny to see for most people, but ten times stronger than steel. If we have any luck, perhaps they'll trap both Conquering and Lachlan. I'll definitely know if they do.

Sly turned his attention to The Guru's Master. "I know you're kind of tired right now, but I still have to ask…why does Conquering want your magical power?"

The Guru's Master replied in his own native language. "Artem has given him the job of creating a super weapon with his magic. Unfortunately for him however, his magic is not great enough to complete this task. That is why we were captured."

"Well, at least we saved you." The Contessa responded, giving a thoughtful expression.

"Sadly, I fear that Conquering may have acquired more than enough to create these super weapons." The Guru's Master lamented sorrowfully.

"So, what kind of super weapon are we talking about here?" Sly inquired, looking puzzled. "A weapon of low key destruction? A weapon of mass destruction?"

"A weapon of ultimate destruction." The Guru's Master corrected in a dooming tone of voice. "Artem was acting really cocky during that broadcast, but the truth is that there are still several organizations that have the power to bring him down if he doesn't take extra precautions. One is Interpol. Another is Angel's syndicate. And the third is the Shotgun syndicate."

"Wait a moment, slow down." Sly said, putting his hands up in front of his face. "What the hell is the Shotgun syndicate?"

"I don't know all of the specifics, but I am aware that they used to be a famous thief syndicate, many decades ago, but in recent years are more underground, but have more manpower than the United States government. That terrifies Artem more than anything else possibly could."

"That scares me, too." Sly lamented with a stunned tone of voice. "Let's hope he's on our side. Also, where does that leave us?"

The Guru's Master attempted to respond, but Arpeggio, who was apparently awake now, cut him off. "My guess is that he most likely considers you to be somewhat of a fourth wheel, Cooper. He knows that you can pose a threat, but compared to criminal syndicates that spans many countries, and consists of thousands, millions even, of agents, he hasn't been putting the bulk of his effort to eliminating you." Arpeggio's voice was lower than usual, and kind of stuttery, but he was still able to stand up to his feet, probably because he's so small.

"Well he sure put a lot of effort into framing me and Carmelita for crimes we didn't commit." Sly said with bitterness in his tone.

"No offense intended Cooper, but that would be a simple task for anyone who dares to boast themselves as an intellectual, especially considering your previous exploits, not to mention the nature of your Clan." Arpeggio replied.

"Wonderful." Sly said, rolling his eyes. "Things only continue to get more complicated. He then turned his attention to Rajan. "For the time being can you go out, cut down some trees, and bring back the wood? We should cover up that window as quickly as possible. You can use the time to let out your rage on the guards if you want to, as well."

Without responding even a tiny peep Rajan turned away, walked over to the window, and jumped out, after which beginning to run at a tremendous speed, soon after disappearing from the Gang's sight.

"Contessa." Sly continued, turning his vision in her direction. "Are you till capable of hypnosis?"

"Funny you should ask, Cooper." The Contessa responded with a grin on her face. "It's not as efficient as before, but I still have the skills required. What make you inquire about such a thing?"

"Conquering may have escaped, but we still need to interrogate some of the guards." Sly explained. "I need you to go out, capture some of the guards, hypnotize them, and force them to tell you what they know about Artem's or Conquering's plans, if anything. I doubt something like hypnosis would work on Conquering with her magic and whatnot, but these nitwit guards should be no issue for you."

"You remember your foes well, Cooper." The Contessa complimented him. "For someone of my caliber, no effort shall be required."

The Contessa headed over to the window, turned around, fired a long, thick stream of white webbing out of her butt, and when it attached to something she flew out the window. She also shortly after disappeared from the Gang's view.

Meanwhile, the ship that Murray, Jing King, Neyla, and Bentley were traveling on was moving steadily through the water. Night was beginning to fall, the clouds almost entirely covered the sky, blocking out the moon and the stars. Rain began to crash down, so the quartet of thieves each ducked inside one of the small buildings on top of the boat which served as shelter. In the far distance they could see Alcatraz Island through a window, the window being covered in messy rain water. As the sight of one of the greatest prisons in the entire world became clearer and clearer, Murray swallowed with fear, Jing King simply gazed blankly, Neyla crossed her arms, seemingly no fear entering her heart, and Bentley typing away on his computer. When they first got on the boat there was tones of other people sailing along with them, but now they were the only passenger's aside from the helmsmen. Murray was sitting in a chair, sleeping, his snore echoing throughout the shelter encumbering the other's length of hearing, Jing King was sitting down and tinkering with her fireworks, Sly was sitting down and reading a newspaper, occasionally flipping through the pages, and Neyla just gazed out the window, a blank expression donned onto her face. Before long the boat came to a stop, the engine rustling for a moment longer before halting completely. Neyla took the handle of her whip and whacked Murray's stomach, which woke him up immediately. His snore broke with a start, and he looked around the shelter in confusion, before looking out the window and realizing that they had reached their destination. Alcatraz was still a little ways away from the boat, but it was still close enough to be seen in relative detail. Murray released a gigantic yawn, his bad breath causing Neyla to shudder and walk away from him, and stand up from his seat, stretching his arms up and back, wide.

Without uttering a word, Neyla left the shelter, delving into the pouring, crashing rain, began sprinting, made her way to the side of the boat, and dived overboard, her whip rolled up and being held in her left hand. The rest of the Gang looked at the water where she jumped in, but couldn't see her at all due to the rain that was crashing onto it and the darkness and the murkiness of the water itself. Neyla was being pressed against by the pressure of the water and the viciousness of the storm, but that didn't stop her from trudging through. She swam at great speeds. Her arms remained fastened to her sides, and her body was laid out straight. She maneuvered through the water like a fish, continuously wiggling and bending her body up and down in order to build momentum. Despite how dark it was, she appeared to be able to see perfectly in the ocean, approaching the underside of the island with ease and swiftness. From behind Neyla came charging dozens of massive fish, all of the shark variety. Most of them were large sharks with gray backs and sides and white undersides, a long fin on their back and each of their sides, and an extremely long, bulky nose which somewhat resembled a hammer. They were at least five times larger than a typical Hammer Head Shark, and were moving at frightening speeds. Neyla first turned onto her back, but still continued swimming by rapidly kicking her feet. She unraveled her whip and wrapped it around the center of one of the sharks, which had gotten uncomfortably close to her. She then stopped swimming for a moment, yanked on her whip, and brutally tore the shark into two pieces. Blood from the shark spread out around her in the water, but she didn't seem to care much about this; after the kill was finished, she rolled her whip back up again so that no hidden enemy could possibly latch onto its extremely long length, turned back to her front, unleashed a massive kick with both of her feet at once, and continued her long swim.

A moment later though, two more sharks swam in front of her, cutting her off. She unraveled her whip again and swung it out, this time wrapping it around one of the shark's hammers. She yanked it to the side, which gave her the opposite momentum required to send a rough kick on the hammer of the other shark. Her kick sent the one shark plunging far away from her, not ripping his hammer off but still bruising and cracking it tremendously, and her whip yanking on the other shark's hammer ripped it off entirely, sending the shark drifting to the bottom. After that Neyla wrapped up her whip again, flipped back onto her stomach, and began swimming forward with another kick. She was free from notice for a few more minutes, but eventually another shark caught her eye. The shark opened its mouth up wide and attempted to bite her arm. Her hand went inside of its mouth, out of her own control, the same hand that was gripping her whip, but she pressed a tiny button on her whip which caused a decently long blade to appear out of the end of it. The blade pierced the top of the shark's mouth. The pain, shock, and blood which spewed out of his mouth caused the shark to back off and swim away in a hurry. Neyla didn't have any time to rest, however. She saved her left hand from being chomped off, but her right elbow was suddenly bitten down on by another shark which she was unable to see or hear approaching from the side. Blood began to exit from her elbow and arm, but the pain wasn't enough to force her to freeze in place. She flipped the handle of her whip around in her hand; before it was facing up, but then it was facing down; and stabbed the top of the hammerhead shark's mouth. This caused the shark to briefly release her elbow, but it wasn't enough to force it to back off this time. Neyla then swiped the handle of her whip across the shark's gaping, angry mouth, brutally knocking most of its teeth, after which using her whip to once again rip off the hammer on its head, sending it plummeting to the bottom.

Realizing that she was running out of breath, Neyla popped out of the water, landing on her feet on the ground of Alcatraz Island. Her left hand was still gripping her rolled up whip, with a few fingers being spared to grip, to the best of her ability, her wounded elbow, which was bleeding, albeit not profusely. Just as Neyla got a chance to catch her breath and regain her bearings, shifting her vision around the island viciously and with great distress, trying to give her dizziness time to settle down, she was confronted by an army of guards. Neyla seemed unfazed by the fact that all of the guards were hybrids of two or more types of animals. The most common type of guard were purple elephants with huge gorilla harms, horse hooves, for feet, and small black bat wings, each one with a trunk as long as their bodies, and they wore a small brown vest on their bodies, and they wielded a flashlight in one hand and a machine gun in the other hand. Neyla also saw tall mutants with green cobra heads and bodies, orange and red tiger arms, and small, green frog feet. They wear brown vests with a dark gray belt around their necks, and their pants were also brown. They didn't seem to carry any sort of weapons, which was odd. In the distance she saw a few mutants with green alligator heads, red crab claws, and orange kangaroo feet. They had orange hair in a Mohawk and wore light purple platings on their chests. They wore purple pants with a black belt to hold it and light purple knee pads. They didn't appear to be carrying any conventional weapons either, but Neyla figured that their crab claws could be used for that. Continuously flying in the air were mutant bats with eagle wings and talons, and duck beaks. Perched on several high towers were dozens of Tule Elk's, with long, brown horns, all of the horns possessing 10 points or more, camel humps on their backs, and frog faces and tongues.

The smallest type of guard were two types of snakes. The first were a bunch of unbelievably long, blue San Francisco Garter Snakes, with frog tongues, and thousands of tiny centipede legs that they seemed to be able to retract to their sides of they want to slither around like snakes. The second were California King Snakes, black and gray in color, with strange antennas on their heads, and frogs legs all across the underside of their bodies, which they seemed to be able to retract to the sides if they wanted to slither around like snakes. Using her extra amazing vision Neyla could also see dozens of California Newt's, which were so tiny that most people wouldn't be able to see them with the naked eye and were orange in color; Neyla assumed that they were most likely mutants as well, but even she couldn't tell exactly what their unique body parts were. The mutant guards must have numbered in the thousands, they lined as far as her eyes could see and were bunched up so much that she couldn't see past them at all. Without warning or hesitation all of the guards began attacking; most of the guards charged toward Neyla, while the purple elephants fired their machine guns and also fired water from their trunks. Neyla didn't waste any time either. She lunged forward, wrapped her whip around the foot of one of the elephants, and swung the elephant around in a circle. This motion caused the elephant to strike many of the other guards at rapid speeds, sending them flying far away, some of them, albeit not all of them, landing in the water. While she did this Neyla gritted her teeth, her muscles, which were decently prominent for the moment, being strained by how insanely heavy that the elephant was. She kept up the swinging for several minutes, but after awhile she realized that the other guards, catching onto her method, were backing off, so she released the elephant from her whip, which was sent flying high into a tall tower, the tower partially crumbling to the ground upon impact.

After that she was swarmed by an army of California Newts; with them being much closer now, she could finally see what unique body parts that they possessed, fly wings, and they were also incredibly fast as well. Neyla rolled up her whip with one swift tug, unleashed her claws, and swiped the air around her, sending the Newt Flies falling to the ground in bloody messes. There were a few of them which were able to break through her fast movements and strike her, leaving cuts all over her body, but it was mostly an effortless matter for her to take them all out. Once enough of them were dead, she began running forward as fast as she could. She soon came to a large tower stone tower, which she run up the side of; she was sprinting at such a high speed that she was able to run on it as if she were running on the ground. She used her long, sharp, gray claws to swipe at the tower several times, after which kicking backwards off of it with great force and watched as the forty foot high tower collapsed, killing dozens upon dozens upon dozens of guards that were unlucky enough to get buried under the debris. Once she fell close to the ground she unraveled her whip again and smashed it on the ground with incredible force, which caused a huge crater to be created, and any guards that were nearby were either knocked down completely or slightly knocked off balance. Neyla used the confusion to strike them all down. Most of them were killed with swipes of her claws, but she also used her whip to great effect here as well, sending them flying into other guards, into the water, far away, or ripped body parts such as arms, legs, or even their heads off. She took her left hand claws and jammed them into the scrotum of another elephant guard, after which pushing him hard up against another tower; the impact caused this tower to collapse as well, crushing all of the guards which were unlucky enough to be in its way.

Several of the elephant guards began rapidly firing a barrage of bullets from their machine guns at Neyla; thinking fast she ducked behind an unsuspecting elephant guard, clawed its throat so it would bleed out, and used its body as a shield as she simultaneously charged toward her assailants. Once she got close enough she threw the destroyed, ragged corpse to the ground, slid to the side of the guards that were shooting at her, and with several sturdy swings of her whip knocked them all unconscious. After that a massive swarm of Mutant Bats began circling the skies above her and commenced with rapidly dropping some kind of strange bombs. Neyla began running around to dodge the bombs. While she looked at the bombs, she noticed that it took exactly two seconds for them to explode after they made contact with something. Taking this knowledge to heart, Neyla wrapped her whip around one of the bombs; it was so small, she was fearful that she would crush the bomb, forcing it to explode prematurely, and possibly damaging her whip, but thankfully it didn't; swung it around, and sent it flying back up at one of the Mutant Bats, killing it immediately. Realizing that her method was a success, she continued. She didn't stop even for a tiny moment, effortlessly taking out all of the Mutant Bats with their own weapons. Once she got down to the last one, her whip missed and the bomb struck the ground, and a couple of seconds later it blew up, sending her flying back into another tower. The force of her striking the tower sent it crumbling down on top of another group of unfortunate guards. This sudden assault didn't cause her to hesitate, however; the same Mutant Bat dropped another bomb, but she was able to grab onto it this time, albeit just in the nick of time, and sent it back to the guard that dropped it, killing it instantly.

Once she was done, she was breathing heavily and her eyes gave off the impression that she was no longer conscious. Bentley attempted to speak with her, loudly, through her ear communication device, but she didn't respond, it was as if she couldn't hear a word he was saying. After a few moments she snapped out of her daze caused by the thrill of battle; when she did, she looked around the island viciously, and realized that there were no more guards left. She thought that there were many more guards than that, but figured that perhaps the rest of them ran away. With her job done, Neyla located another tower, one of only three in her view that were still standing, and sprinted towards it, running up the side, and then kicked off of it, the force sending her soaring all the way back to the ship that she arrived on. She rolled her whip back up while she was in the air, and moments later landed on the ship light as a feather. She opened up the door of the shelter and walked inside, Murray, Jing King, and Bentley offering her confused and worried expressions on their faces.

"What happened on the island Neyla?" Bentley inquired, his voice sounding extra high pitched because of worry.

"Uh, nothing much." Neyla responded in a low, disconcerting tone of voice. "I think I just got carried away a bit, it's been so long since I've been able to let loose and fight like this."

"Whatever, let's just dock." Bentley ordered, turning to Murray. "We need to proceed as quickly as possible."

The helmsmen of the boat proceeded to bring it closer to the island until it was right next to it. After that he stopped the engine and went inside of the shelter to get away from the rain, Jing King exiting the shelter so that she could proceed with her part of the job. Jing King loaded the rest of her fireworks into her bazooka and then jumped off of the boat, landing on the island with a light thud. Jing King started with destroyed the three remaining towers. Neyla took out most of them when she was fighting with the guards, but they all needed to be destroyed, because snipers would have perfect vantage points to take them out from there. Jing charged up her firework launcher and barraged the towers. It took a full pack of fireworks in order to cause each tower to crumble. When Jing King began her assault some of the guards which fled before were returning, but the crumbling towers took some of them out and caused the others to flee again. The fireworks struck with such overwhelming force that much of the debris also flew across the island and landed in the water, and some of it even on the ship. After that she proceeded a little bit further into the island. The rain was starting to let up a little bit, so Murray, Neyla, and Bentley exited the shelter, hopped off the ship, and followed her, although they remained a good distance behind her so that she could eliminate the security defenses. Jing King eyeballed countless turrets up on the prison building. The building itself stretched as high as the eye could see, it seemed to puncture the clouds, it had thousands of metal bar windows, and the architecture resembled gothic paintings and buildings such as what the gang previously found in Prague when they traveled their years ago, so much that it made both Bentley and Murray shiver with fear. Jing King commenced by shooting some fireballs up at the turrets.

She fired five fireballs in rapid succession, and managed to destroy three of them with each fireball partially because of the destruction range and partially because of how close to each other that they were. Once she did, however, the rest of them strangely immediately zeroed in on her exact location and began rapid firing at her. Reacting quickly, she coated both of her hands in fire and waved her left hand across her body, creating a shield which effortlessly protected her from the onslaught. This ability was called Flaming Defense, and none of the bullets were even able to come close to penetrating it. Behind her, Bentley Murray, and Neyla ran a little ways away, ducking behind tall, thick debris to avoid being hit. After a few minutes the turrets stopped firing, and Jing King assumed that the turrets needed time to recharge when they were attacking an intruder that intensely. It seems like a flaw, but considering that intruders getting past the previous defenses is probably unbelievably rare, in most cases this weakness probably doesn't mean a whole lot. Jing didn't waste any time. She held her right hand out in a chopping motion and truck the ground. This was her Booming Chop. The force caused a torrent of energy to propel forward and strike and travel up the castle, taking out any turret that it came in contact with along its way. She then held both of her hand out in the same chopping motion, and waved both of her hands across her body in rapid disarray, which caused crescent-shaped blades made out of fire to leave her hands, a technique known as Rageful Blades, which struck the building, taking out countless more turrets, and destroying many windows and breaking free tons of stone debris, which subsequently crashed down to the ground with great force. Jing King continued by opening up both of her hands wide, facing the palms towards the ground, and slamming them both on the ground simultaneously, a move known as Palms of Thunder; this caused a torrent of thunder to erupt from her hands, which forced the ground around them to shake, the castle as well.

All of a sudden all of the remaining bars on this side of the castle broke free and began plummeting towards the ground, but this didn't seem to have any immediate applications. After that, Jing King clapped the palms of her hands together hard, which caused fire to float around all of the falling steel bars, and the bars themselves began levitating in the air when Jing King began wiggling her fingers. This power is called Flaming Marionettes. At this point the turrets were coming back online again and were ready to continue attacking her, but it didn't matter anymore. She used the broken bars, which she was now able to control, to pierce and destroy all of the rest of the turrets on this side of the building. When she was done, this side of the building was completely vacant of all turrets. After that she moved on to the other three sides and repeated the entire method, a process which took about twenty minutes each. Once she was done, Bentley, Murray, and Neyla returned to her location, and then Neyla proceeded forward again, while Bentley started typing on his computer, which emerged from his wheel chair. Strangely, Jing King kept her hands coated in flames, but Neyla didn't stop to question it. She ran up to the side of the building, attached her whip to the wall, and began to lift herself up, proceeding with a quick, swift climb. She would latch her whip onto one of the windows, which were now missing metal bars, and lift herself up; once she and her whip, which was in her right hand, changed positions, where she was facing downward, her feet being next to a window a little bit further up, she would grab onto said window with her left hand, and begin scampering up the side for a little bit until she was ready to use her whip again. She made it all the way to the top in a matter of seconds; once she got far enough, he became unable to be seen by her comrades down below.

Once she got that far there was silence for a slightly worrying silence for a few moments, but then a bunch of guards who were patrolling on top came plummeting down to the ground, the impact making their bodies completely unrecognizable, reduced to a bloody, disgusting mess. The impact also created several small craters in the ground, one for all twelve of the guards. Up at the top, there was only one guard left, an elephant. He fired several shots at Neyla, but she effortlessly swerved passed each one of them, wrapped her whip around his neck, and pulled him down to the ground. She pulled tighter and tighter, and he struggled and struggled, gasping for the desperate breath of air, until he passed out from a lack of oxygen. She reached into his back pocket and pulled out a ring that has several keys on it. Neyla then ran over to the side of the building that she previously climbed up, and leaped over, her body straight as a board. At first her head was lower than her feet, but once she got half way down she flipped forward so her feet were lower than her head. Once she got a little lower she placed her feet on the side of the castle and started running down as fast as she possibly could. It wasn't long after this that Murray, Jing King, and Bentley began to see her again, their faces giving off incredibly relieved expressions, like they were glad that she wasn't hurt. Once she got close to the ground she kicked off of the building and duck rolled on the ground. When she stopped she rose to her feet; she had a few scrapes and bruises here and there from the fall, but overall she wasn't seriously injured. She jutted her whip in the air, swung it around for a few seconds, and then wrapped it back up again, gripping it tightly in her left hand, and turned around, walking over to Murray, Jing King, and Bentley.

After that the four of them approached the front of the prison, Jing King used some fireworks to destroy the bars, Neyla used the keys that she acquired to unlock the front door, Murray used his massive strength to push the gigantic, steel doors open, albeit with a bit of struggle, and the four of them walked in. Jing King quickly blew dozens of guards away that were inside, Bentley helping her out a tiny bit by throwing his bombs, and the four of them were able to safely walk around the first room in the prison. What they saw inside was like a madhouse. Prison cells liked the walls, both all the way around and from top to bottom, there must have been many thousands of them. Murray started counting them, pointing at them as he did with the index finger of his right hand, but eventually scratched his head with the fingers on his left hand and stopped, as he lost track of the count. The prisoners were extremely loud and vulgar. The walls must have been unbelievably sound proofed, as they had to shout in order to just barely be able to hear each other. Strangely, some of the prisoners were shouting specifically at Neyla. She tried to keep ignoring him, but one of them threw a rock at her with great force, which finally got her attention. She turned around and glared at him, and the prisoner, a burly moose, simply laughed at her with a sleezy grin on his face.

"Hey sweet thang. Funny meetin' you around here." The prisoner exclaimed in a low-pitched, condescending tone of voice.

"Keep talking and I'll shove your testicles down your throat." Neyla responded with venom in her voice, raising up her hand and unsheathing her claws.

"You always could put up a good catfight, miss Sarah. And if you don't recall, so could I. Let me out of here, and I'll be happy to remind you."

"I'd rather just kill you where you stand." Neyla replied. She started walking towards him.

Bentley grabbed her wrist, which stopped her immediately. "Don't bother. We need to keep moving, we don't have time to worry about riffraff like this."

Neyla gritted her teeth in frustration, but sighed and continued with her comrades. "You're right. Sorry, I almost lost my temper."

"What was that about?" Murray questioned. Recognizing her silence, Murray continued, "If you don't want to talk about it, then that's fine."

Neyla responded anyways, in a low, solemn tone of voice. "I was imprisoned here many years ago. I still know lots of the prisoners that are still here."

Bentley then spoke up, his voice louder and more curious now. "If you were a criminal once, how did you become a cop? Back when we defeated you, you were killed."

"I was able to join Interpol because I had some associates on the inside who erased all information about me, and I changed my identity from Sarah to Neyla. They were never the wiser." Neyla explained. She attempted to put a small smirk on her face, but the sadness still broke through.


	9. Alcatraz

_**Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time**_  
 _ **Chapter 8**_  
 _ **Alcatraz**_

Meanwhile, a helicopter landed on top of the building, and out of it popped a tall raccoon, its fur partially gray and partially brown. He was adorned in a black combat vest, with a black utility belt wrapped around his entire waist. After he exited, the helicopter flew away; it hovered high in the sky, and remained high above the prison. The raccoon ran over to the opposite side of the prison, knelt down, pulled a long, thick rod out of a pouch attached to his utility belt, and pressed a red button on it, which revealed it to be an extra large red laser pointer. He used the laser to effortlessly sheer a through into the stone roof, after which he put the laser pointer away, grabbed a few grappling lines out of his pouches, attached them to the roof, and then flipped upside down and began lowering inside of the building. When he got inside he saw the same sight that the Cooper Gang did, except they were gone, and in their place were several elephant guards who were looking around frantically, desperately questioning the present prisoners about something. The raccoon lowered himself down into the prison; once he reached the halfway point, he let go of the wires that was suspending him in the air. He plummeted down to the ground level, flipped back up right, and landed on the shoulders of one of the guards; before the guard could react to his presence, he positioned both of his feet on either side of the guard's neck and twisted, snapping his neck with a loud crack. Before the guard was able to completely fall to the ground, the raccoon jumped to the next, bouncing off of one pair of shoulders all the way to another, both being quite the distance apart. With the second guard, once he landed on his shoulders, he instead placed one of his feet in front of his face and kicked back; the guard's and the raccoon's faces were both facing away from the prison cells that they were closest to.

This caused the guard's head to smash unbelievably hard into the steel cell, knocking him unconscious. The moment that the guard's head collided with the prison cell. Before the guard completely fell to the ground the raccoon did a hard kick off of his shoulders, which subsequently caused him to fall to the ground quicker, launched himself over to another guard on the other end of the room and landed on the ground; he grabbed onto the elephant's trunk, yanked on it, forcing the elephant to the center of the room, and then began swinging it around. He swung the elephant in a gigantic circle for a about a minute until the strain on the trunk became too much and the trunk was ripped clean off, the elephant flying across the entire room, crashing into the wall and landed on the floor, dying in a bloody mes. While this was going on all of the prisoners were shouting at the raccoon, the screams ranging from disgust, to fear, to praise, but the raccoon didn't listen to any of them. When he was done he was facing the front door that lead outside, but he turned around, and directly behind him, albeit on the other side of the prison, was the door that lead to the next room. The raccoon ran over to it and went inside, gently shutting the door behind himself. What he saw before him were several dozen turrets posted on the floor, on the walls around him, and on the ceiling far above him. Mere moments after he entered the room they detected him and prepared to shoot him dead, but he pulled ten ninja throwing stars out of his utility belt and threw them all at once; the ninja throwing stars took out all of the turrets in an instant. There must have been a hundred of them, or more, in this room, but he effortlessly dealt with them. Once a star struck a turret it would blow right through it, find another one, and repeat the process, even if it had to completely change it's angle and trajectory to do so.

The raccoon was able to control the ninja throwing stars using strings, one end attached to the star and the other attached to one of his ten fingers. The strings were so tiny and thin that they wouldn't be able to be seen normally by the naked eye, but the florescent lights in the room did allow them to glisten slightly. He controlled the direction of the stars by moving his fingers up, down, or side to side, he slowed them down by bending his fingers, and he made them go faster by straightening his fingers. Once all of the turrets were completely destroyed, the raccoon closed both of his fists in unison, which caused all ten of the ninja throwing starts to come straight back for him; once they had reached him, he grabbed them all, five per hand, and put them back into his utility belt. After that he ran all the way over to the other side of the room. Realizing that there was no other doors in this room, he looked up and saw a window that was mysteriously unlocked and creaked open slightly. The raccoon pulled a couple of decently long daggers out of his utility belt, dug them into the wall, and started climbing. Once he reached the top he sat on the window cill, put the daggers away, and then peered through. Far below on the ground level he saw Bentley, Murray, Jing King, and Neyla walking around, investigating. Paying them no mind, the raccoon noticed that this room was lined with windows, all up, down, and around the walls. Behind the windows weren't views of the outside, but were instead strange bottles. The raccoon made his way across the walls, gripping the windows tightly with his fuzzy hands, quiet enough to where nobody below was able to hear him. Once the raccoon made it two walls over, on the other side of the room, he found a rather large air vent. Using the laser pointer that he had before he sheered the bars off and began crawling through the vent.

When he did the four bars that were blocking off the vent fell all the way to the ground; as they crashed down, Bentley, Murray, Jing King, and Neyla all four simultaneously looked in that direction with a start. They went over to investigate where the bars came from; Neyla and Bentley looked up, and then gazed at each other, clearly both thinking the same thing. Meanwhile, the raccoon made his way through the air vent. He was crouched in a way that almost resembled a fetal position, except he wasn't scrunched in quit enough for that to be the case. His elbows and knees were touching the floor of the air vent, and he was using them to crawl his way through it. Despite the area he was in he was managing to remain completely silent. He was moving incredibly slow, stopping occasionally to give his elbows and knees a rest, which would sometimes hurt due to them being pressed up against the steel air vent. After awhile he came to another grate; looking through it revealed to him a long, windy corridor filled with prison cells. The raccoon knew right away that he was in the most inner workings of the prison, the location where only the most dangerous and infamous criminals were placed. The raccoon sheered these bars off as well, after which jumping through, sticking the landing on the floor. Unlike the previous prison room, this one was completely silent. It felt kind of ominous, and made a shiver run down the raccoon's spine, but he progressed. He started walking down the long, dark hallway, turning his head from left to right at occasional points. It was obvious that he was looking for someone very specific. After awhile something broke the silence, a growling, guttural laugh. The raccoon stopped in his tracks and turned around. The laugh continued, slowly, so he turned to his right, and saw who gave off the laugh. The person soon walked towards the cell, and became close enough for the raccoon to fully make him out.

He was a tall and severely overweight walrus. He had purple skin and two long, white, sharp tusks, one of the tusks being broke off at half the length, and had black eyes and no hair on his head. He wore black shoes, blue jeans, and had Bad Belly written on on his stomach, the word stretching from the underside all the way to just above his belly button. The muscles on his arms and legs bulged, and he clutched his fists and gritted his teeth once he saw his surprise visitor.

"You know, most people try to break out of prison, not in." The walrus exclaimed in a booming tone of voice.

"Can it, McSweeny." The raccoon responded in a low, commanding tone of voice.

"So what do you want?" McSweeny replied, his voice matter-of-fact.

"What makes you think I came here for you?" The raccoon asked.

"Shotgun, I doubt you would go through the trouble of breaking into the most secure prison in the world if you didn't want to solicit the aid of one of the most infamous criminals of all time." McSweeny explained, crossing his arms with confidence.

"You seem to think pretty highly of yourself." Shotgun said, putting a cocky smirk on his face.

"Get lost." McSweeny demanded, turning his back to Shotgun and walking away, rejecting his presence. "I have no desire to work with the likes of you."

"You'd rather rot away in prison?" Shotgun inquired.

"I've been in here for more than around 30 years already, I think I can handle a few more." McSweeny explained.

"You were originally detained in Hearthrow Penitentiary." Shotgun corrected him. "You were shipped to Alcatraz because you tried to escape a few years ago. And almost succeeded. Clearly you're tired of being a prisoner."

McSweeny gritted his teeth, turned back to face Shotgun, and stomped over to the prison cell bars. "If it means teaming up with you, Shotgun, I'd rather put a bullet in my brain right now!" He declared. His voice was extremely loud and echoed throughout much of this room. The noise caused a few other prisoners incarcerated here to look in their direction.

Shotgun, fearlessly walked up to the bars and gripped it with his own hand. Shotgun's hand was grazing McSweeny's gripped hand.

"I'm sorry to hear that, pal." Shotgun responded in a low, sad tone of voice. "But if you don't do it for me, do it for Conner. Please."

McSweeny's facial expression turned from furiously angry to unbelievably confused. "What are you going on about now? Conner is dead."

"Yes, but his son is not." Shotgun replied.

"I am aware. I gave him information about the Cooper Vault five years ago." McSweeny explained.

"Sly Cooper is in serious trouble. Alexander Artem has returned." Shotgun said.

McSweeny's expression changed once again, this time horror and despair. "I've had enough of your lies, Shotgun. He's dead. His whole syndicate burned. I saw it myself."

"So did I." Shotgun agreed. "But nevertheless, he is back. I tried to warn Sly to stay away from him, but he wouldn't listen. He's as hard headed as his father."

"True enough. But do you have any proof of these claims?" McSweeny questioned him.

Shotgun reached into a black pouch attached to his waist and pulled out some folded up papers. He handed the papers to McSweeny who unfolded them and read them. They were some strange looking blueprints.

"Where did you find this?" McSweeny asked, his voice more serious than ever.

"Monaco." Shotgun responded. "Apparently he had a new base set up there and was going to war with Angel's syndicate, but the Cooper Gnag helped her push him out of Russia. His mansion was destroyed, but I did manage to find a copy of this. I figured you'd want proof."

"So Alexander is still up to his old tricks." McSweeny conceded. "These are schematics for a time machine."

"Not only that, but they're much further along now, which can only mean that he has some special help. Not sure who joined forces with him yet, though."

"We should have taken him out while we had the chance. Now Sly's son is in danger." McSweeny stated, clutching his fists and gritting his teeth. "Now even Conner's sole remaining heir is in danger."

"And the shit part is that he wont' back down like I've warned him to." Shotgun admitted.

'Of course not. He is his father's son after all." McSweeny smirked and chuckled a little bit.

"Can't fault you with that logic. Regardless, are you in or not? Neither of us want Alexander to be allowed to do whatever he wants."

"Suppose I don't have much of a choice in the matter." McSweeny lamented, releasing a big sigh and possessing a sorrowful look in his eyes. "Get me the hell out of here."

With that, Shotgun pulled his laser pointer out of his pouch again and sheered off all six of the metal bars, the bars crashing to the ground. The sound caused several guards, who were nearby around the corner, to come to their location. The moment that they were noticed, McSweeny exited his prison cell and punched all five of the guards in their faces, knocking each of them unconscious, it only took one punch for each of them. After that both McSweeney and Shotgun began running as fast as they could down the long, windy corridors of the lower prison. This trek took them a long time because of how maze like it was. The two would occasionally come to dead ends, but McSweeny immediately punched the walls, causing them to crumble to the ground, and the two continued. As they ran, tons of prisoners screamed at them, drowning out their thoughts, screaming obcenities and pleas for rescue but Shotgun and McSweeney ignored them. The longer they ran and searched for the exit, the more guards became aware of their attempted escape and started attacking them. McSweeny was able to effortlessly take most of them out, but the few that slipped past him were quickly silenced by Shotgun, by snapping their necks faster than the eye could see. They eventually came to another dead end, but McSweeny refrained from punching the wall because they both noticed a large crevice attached to the wall quite a ways above it. McSweeny stopped in front of the wall and Shotgun hopped on his shoulders and leaped up into the crevice. After sticking the landing he turned around, bent over, and reached both of his hands out to McSweeny; McSweeney grabbed his hands, and Shotgun pulled him up, McSweeny struggling to pull his hulking, bloated frame over the edge, grunting as he did so.

Just as soon as they were done several more guards appeared from around a corner and noticed them; Shotgun front flipped towards them and upside down spin kicked all three of them in their heads, sending them flying against the walls, knocking them out. Attached to one of the walls in this room was an old elevator. Shotgun searched through the pockets of the defeated guards until he found the key; Shotgun and McSweeney got on the elevator, Shotgun put the key into a control panel, turned it, and pressed a few buttons. This caused the elevator to slowly rise. As it rose it made an insufferable sound. The sound forced McSweeny to cover both of his ears with both of his hands, squnting his eyes, and gritting his teeth in pain, and proved that nobody had been keeping up maintenance with the elevator. The noise also caused several more guards to arrive at their location in response, but by this time, despite how slow that the elevator was rising, they were too high up for the guards to be able to do anything to stop them. Several minutes later they arrived at the top. A door opened in front of them and they went through it. The room they were in now was the first room that Shotgun first entered in the prison. After that they kept running, quickly approaching the front door to the prison, but before they could reach it they heard a bellowing holler. McSweeney and Shotgun looked above and Jerome Potomus plummeted down, punching McSweeney in the face, sending him flying back into the prison bears. The impact caused the bars to shatter, both the one that he made contact with and many on the same wall on both sides of him which were affected by a shock wave caused by the impact, which caused many of the incarcerated prisoners to escape from their prison cells.

After that Jerome didn't stall for even a moment; he turned to Shotgun and swiped the back of his hand, the opposite of the fist that he used against McSweeney towards him, but Shotgun managed to leap backwards out of the way, flipping, and landing back on his feet again. Jerome snapped his fingers, which caused several of the prisoners, each one being incredibly bulky to grab onto and hold down both McSweeney and shotgun. Despite McSweeney's immense amount of physical strength and large muscles even he wasn't able to struggle free from their grips. Jerome simply glared and smiled at his unfortunate captives.

"Like a lamb to the slaughter." He said while looking at McSweeney. He waved the back of is hand in Shotgun's direction, which caused the prisoners under his control to release him.

This visibly angered McSweeney. "You bastard! You planned this!?" He exclaimed in a booming, growling tone of voice.

"Of course not. If he wanted to kill you, do you really think he'd need someone to lure you out? He'd have a better chance to do it by keeping you inside of your cell." Shotgun responded, audibly irritated.

"Then how can you explain him releasing you?" McSweeney asked understandably.

"Because I can't take this muscle monster on by myself, and he knows it." Shotgun replied, scanning his eyes across his Jerome's perfectly chiseled eight pack abs, the bulging muscles on his arms and legs which made his shirt and pants look like paper, and the veins involuntarily popping out on his face and neck.

"That doesn't mean you won't try and escape." Jerome said. His glare caused the prisoners to keep surrounding Shotgun in a partial circle.

"Sorry, but no can do. I need the help of that headstrong Walrus over there." Shotgun stated in a sarcastic tone of voice.

Shotgun reached into both of his pouches with both of his hands and attempted to pull out several small, black, sharp shurikens out of them. In response, one of the prisoners, a short but muscular lion lunged at him from the side. Shotgun managed to do a flip spin kick, striking the guard in his face, knocking him back quite a ways, but another guard came up from behind him and struck him with a thick, wide, long, brown, baseball bat in the back of his head, sending him collapsing down to the ground, the shurikens he grabbed flying out of his pouches and across the floor. After that Shotgun scrambled up to his knees, but upon looking up and seeing how many more guards were surrounding him now he refrained from moving for awhile. All of a sudden McSweeney rammed the back of his head into the face of a prisoner, causing the prisoner to release his grip on him; caught up in strange confusion, McSweeney was able to wiggle his arms free from them, then grabbed the scruff of their necks and spun them around in a large circle for a few seconds, after which throwing both of them across the room. Before he could react, Jerome soared threw the air and delivered a flying kick to McSweeney's stomach. This attack knocked the wind out of him entirely, sending him flying back into the prison cells once again. With Jerome and the other guards distracted, the latter laughing at what Jerome had done, Shotgun hurried to his feet and pressed a button on his utility belt, which caused an extremely long black grappling line to appear out of it. It stretched all the way to the top, digging into the ceiling. He began to lift up into the air slightly, but the guard with the baseball bat, a burly warthog, struck his feet with his generic yet effective weapon. This caused him to stall in the air for a moment. Without wasting the momentum he currently possessed Shotgun kicked upward on a guard behind him which allowed him to gain more distance in the air, after which kicking off of another guard's head, which sent him in the direction of Jerome.

As he flew Shotgun pulled a dagger out of each of his pouches and when he was over top of Jerome slashed downward. Shotgun had a pleased smirk on his face, but it suddenly went to a confused frown once Jerome effortlessly caught his dagger. As Shotgun fell down to the ground the dagger slid through Jerome's hand and yet, despite it's apparent sharpness, didn't draw any blood at all from his flesh. Jerome yanked his hand, pulling the dagger out of Shotgun's hand, and throw it across the room, after which using his opposite fist to punch Shotgun in the chest, sending him flying back. Several of the prisoner surrounded his wounded body once again, one of them grabbing a butcher knife and cutting Shotgun's grappling line with one swift swipe. After that, someone rolled up like a ball fell down behind the guard that cut Shotgun's grappling line, landed light as a feather, and used a long, brown whip to knock him unconscious. It was Neyla, who was able to be viewed perfectly and clearly by everybody in the room. She then proceeded to kick upward, connecting with another guard's chin; this caused his chin to crack loudly, and he tumbled backward. Without allowing her feet to fall back down to the ground Neyla, upside down, used her hands to propel herself up in the air, flipping backward, using both her feet to kick the face of another guard, after which landing on her feet. Without stopping for even a moment she bent down and spun her left foot around in a big circle to trip three other nearby guards, after which clawing the face and chests of five other guards so fast that they didn't have time to even attempt to react to her movements. Once all of the guards surrounding Shotgun's immediate vicinity were taken out, she swung her whip around Jerome's neck. After that she yanked on it as hard as she possibly could; it took several seconds of intense pulling, Neyla's muscles, which were usually unable to be seen, bulging slightly, but she finally managed to bring him towards herself, lifting him up off of the ground, and throwing him across the room into six other prisoners.

The prisoners were all knocked unconscious due to Jerome's incredible weight brought on by his massive amount of muscles. Jerome quickly made his way to his feet, but all of a sudden the glass ceiling broke away, and Murray came plummeting to the ground, striking Jerome directly in the head, sending him flying away again. When Murray hit the ground with his Thunder Flop he caused the ground to break a great deal. The force caused the nearby prisoners to shriek in terror and run as far away from him as they possibly could while still remaining in this room. With no hesitation the door opposite of the front door blew open, along with parts of the wall surrounding it on both sides and the top, and threw the smoke and debris ran Jing King, with Bentley following closely behind her. Murray scrambled to his feet and charged toward Jerome. He plunged his fist toward his father, but he was able to catch Murray's fist with one hand and punch him in the face with his other fist. While he was distracted Bentley wheeled behind him and launched ten extremely tiny, thin, black grappling lines out of his wheel chair, which dug sharp, spiky ends deep into Jerome's thick flesh. Bentley then turned around and pressed a button in his wheel chair, which caused a gigantic burst of fire to emerge from the back, propelling Bentley forward, Jerome forced to follow him. Bentley zoomed around the room at an incredibly rapid speed, using two levers inside of his wheel chair to steer without having to touch the wheels. Bentley was just barely able to avoid smashing into the walls, the prison cells, the prisoners, and his own comrades. Jerome bounced on the ground and smashed against the walls constantly. While he did this, Neyla, Jing King, and Murray had no problem at all taking out all of the prisoners that tried to jump them, Neyla smacking and strangling them with her whip, Jing King merely just throwing fireballs at them, and Murray rapidly punching them, capable of knocking each of them out with one punch a piece.

After awhile Jerome finally managed to regain his footing, while Bentley was still pulling him. He dug his feet deep into the ground, digging it up a great deal, which forced Bentley to slow down quite a bit. Bentley didn't appear to be struggling at all because he wasn't personally pulling on Jerome, but when he looked behind him he suddenly obtained a terrified expression on his face. Bentley pressed another button inside of his wheel chair. Before the flame propelling his wheel chair forward was ejected out of a couple of really small rockets on the back of his wheel chair, but this command caused a much larger one to appear, so big that it covered up the two small ones, and flames began to burst out of the larger one, making him go even faster. In response Jerome turned his head and body to the side slightly and dug his hands into the wall. With this, even the advanced Adrenaline Burst wasn't getting Bentley anywhere, he kept slowing down at rapid pace. At a certain point Bentley and Jerome were traveling at a slow enough speed so that Jerome could grab hold of the grappling lines that Bentley had attached to him and yank them out, throwing them down on the floor. This caused a sudden jolt to both Bentley and Jerome; Jerome was sent flying backward, in the opposite direction that he was being pulled in, and Bentley was flung high up in the air. Bentley pressed another button in his wheel chair, which caused his seat to eject him out, his seat being attached to a gigantic spring. The spring threw Bentley over to the other side of the room; to help cushion the landing, Bentley ducked inside of his shell completely. He hit the wall and then fell hard to the ground. Several seconds after both impacts were made his arms, legs, and head all popped out of his shell simultaneously. He squinted his eyes and shook his head out of dizziness, and had to remain on the ground, sitting up against the wall, due to his inability to walk, and he had a few bruises on him, but he didn't appear to be too harmed other than that.

Jerome was flung against the wall, but was able to remain on his feet without falling down. Neyla leaped in his direction, wrapped her whip around his neck, and began strangling him against the ground. Jerome gripped his hands around her whip and squeezed and pulled on it, but couldn't manage to get free. Over time his face began to change colors, red, then blue, then purple, but despite his lack of breath his struggling never ceased or got weaker. Murray climbed to his feet, ran over to Jerome's and Neyla's location, gripped his father, and helped Neyla hold him to the ground. His used his right hand to grip his forehead and his left hand to grip his chest, pressing down as hard as he possibly could. Jing King ran over to Bentley, picked him up, and sat him on her shoulders; Bentley reached his arms as far around his neck as he could with how tiny they were. As she did this several more prisoners attempted to jump her from behind, but the moment that she was done she immediately spun around, coated her hands in fire, and threw fireballs at them, hitting them point blank, incinerating them in a hurry. While Neyla, Murray, Jing King, and Bentley were struggling with their opponents, Shotgun picked up a handheld radio and began talking into it. After a few seconds he was done, and put it back inside one of his pouches, after which drew a long katana which was sheathed on his left waist. The sword was average sized for a katana, with a gray blade, a black and blue stripped hilt, and a black diamond shaped hilt guard. He then proceeded to run forward fast, leaped high up in the air, gripped the handle of his sword tightly with both of his hands, pointed the blade of it downwards, and then he began to fall towards Jerome. Murray, seeing Shotgun plummet in their direction, took the hand placed on Jerome's chest and moved it to his left leg so that his hand wouldn't get stabbed.

Reacting quickly, Jerome lifted up his feet and kicked Murray hard in the chest; the impact forced Murray to release his grip on Jerome, and sent him flying across the room. Jerome then lifted up his head and carried Neyla in between him and Shotgun; Shotgun, realizing that he was able to stab Neyla, dropped his sword, which crashed on the ground. This allowed Jerome to hit Shotgun with Neyla, sending them both flying over next to Murray. After that Jerome landed on his feet, unwrapped Neyla's whip from his neck, and threw it across the room, in a different direction than Neyla herself flew. Jing King completely loaded her firework bazooka and fired a barrage of fireworks towards Jerome. They struck him directly in the face and stomach, sending him flying back and smashing into one of the prison cells, but he was able to remain on his feet. After the smoke cleared he didn't appear to have a single scratch, bruise, or wound of any type on him, and then he just walked forward at normal speed as if nothing had even happened. Shotgun brought out two more swords, which were sheathed right next to the previous one, on the same waist. The second katana was the same length, with a silver blade, square, black hilt guard, and a green and black stripped hilt. The third sword was the same length, with a silver blade, a rectangular, black hilt guard, and an orange and black stripped hilt. He held one sword in each hand, scrambled to his feet, and was ready to charge forward once again. Jing King prepared to provide him with assistance by running up closer to Jerome, completely filling her firework launcher and coating both of her hands in fire once again. Neyla pounced to the left over to her whip and retrieved it; after that she faced Jerome, glaring at him with venom in her eyes, and retracted the claws out of both her fingers and her toes.

Neyla lunged forward and struck her whip in Jerome's direction; Jerome caught the whip in one hand, used it to pull her closer to him, and punched her in her side, sending her tumbling to the ground. Murray clutched his fists and began punching. His punches were so fast that they couldn't be seen by most everyone in the room, but Jerome managed to somehow dodge and block them with ease. After a few seconds, Jerome caught one of his fists in the palm of his hand, twisted Murray's arm, and gave him a single punch to the gut, which sent him flying once more. Out of the corner of his eye Jerome saw twelve fireworks coming in his direction. He dodged them by simply jumping back wards slightly, which caused most of them to hit the wall and prison cells in that direction. That was, except for one, which suddenly changed it's trajectory, turned around, and began targeting Jerome again. Realizing this, Jerome caught the firework with his hand, gripped it tightly, spun around, and threw it back at Jing. It didn't hit her directly, but struck the ground in front of her, breaking the ground apart, the impact and force sending Jing flying back. As Jing flew she managed to turn to the side so when she landed her elbow and arm was struck and not her back; this was an attempt to protect Bentley on her back. Shotgun lunged toward Jerome, raised both of his swords up in the air, and attempted to slash him. Jerome, however, caught both the swords with both of his hands. When he caught them his hands were resting up against the hilts. He slid his hands down the length of them, once again his hands somehow not being cut by the blades, took the swords out of Shotgun's hands, threw them across the prison room, and gave Shotgun one swift, hard, headbutt to his own forehead, sending him flying back where he was before.

As Jerome began to walk towards Shotgun, the ceiling of the prison broke apart, hundreds of pounds of debris falling to the ground, Jerome, Jing King, Neyla, Shotgun, and Murray running around in order to avoid being crushed by the debris. Everyone looked up, and after the debris stopped falling and the dust cleared they saw three helicopters hovering above them. Two doors opened up on each, one on either side of them, and six figures that were difficult to see jumped out. All six of them had jet packs on their backs. They flew down to the ground, where they could finally be seen. Five of the six were lions, with thick, golden manes around their faces, long, sharp teeth in their mouths, long, sharp claws on their fingers and toes, adorned in black, leather body armor, and wielding machine guns. The third one was none other than Angel, her hair tied back up in a ponytail, wearing the same uniform that her comrades were. Her guards immediately began firing, killing all of the prisoners and guards in the room, and then went over to aid and check on Shotgun, Murray, Jing King, Bentley, and Neyla. While they did this, Angel confronted Jerome. Without saying a word Angel charged forward and propelled her left fist toward his face. Jerome dodged to the left, Angel punched him with her right hand, Jerome dodged to the right, and this kept up for several seconds. After awhile Jerome caught Angel's wrist with his hand, twisted her arm around slightly, and then punched her in the face with his other. He did manage to draw some blood from her, but she was able to stop herself from flying back and continued fighting. Angel struck Jerome in the gut, then jumped up in the air and kicked him across the face, and after that punched him in the face twice.

She attempted to strike him again, but Jerome ducked underneath of it and then grabbed both of her wrists with both of his hands. He jumped up in the air, kneed her chin hard, and then flipped her over his head and threw her across the room. Angel managed to stick the landing when she reached her destination. She unsheathed the claws in the fingers on both of her hands, and then proceeded to charge towards him again. Jerome punched in her direction, but she ducked under it, sliced the claws of her left hand into his chest, which caused even him to kneel down to the ground. Angel then clutched both of her fists and began unleashing a barrage of punches to his face and his chest. This assault sent Jerome flying back into one of the destroyed prison cells and forced him to collapse to the ground. Jerome rested on one knee and one foot, his left hand clutched into a fist resting on the ground, and his right hand resting up against the prison cell that was behind him.

"I'm disappointed in you, Jerome." Angel stated with a cocky grin and tone of voice. "I remember you being stronger than this."

"I assure you that I haven't gotten weaker, you've just gotten more skilled." Jerome responded in a gruff, angry tone of voice.

"You disappear for 30 years, and now you return under these circumstances? I shouldn't be surprised, you bastard." Angel lamented, shaking her head at the end of her statement.

Jerome ignored her and lunged forward, punching her in the face. Her head bends backward slightly, but a few seconds later it propelled forward again; Angel's forehead struck Jerome's, both of their heads began to bleed, and Jerome was knocked back again. After that Angel's five compatriots joined her and pointed their machine guns at Jerome, who simply rose up to his feet, albeit very slowly and visibly in pain, without looking the least bit frightened in the face of death. Jing King ran over and coated her hands in fire, Murray ran over and clutched his fists, Neyla grabbed her whip, ran over, and cracked it on the ground, and Shotgun grabbed all three of his swords, holding one in each hand and one in his mouth, and ran over to join everyone, also ready to attack. Shotgun was the first to make his move. Faster than the eye could see he ran over to the side of Jerome and attempted to strike him with the tip of all three of his swords. He succeeded, but this didn't halt Jerome for even a moment. He bent forward and jabbed Shotgun in the gut with his knee. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Jing King launch six fireballs in his direction. All six of them hit point blank, but he charged threw the spreading flames, leaped in the air, spun around, and kicked Jing King in the face. The moment that he landed both Murray and Angel came at Jerome on both sides. The two of them delivered fast punches simultaneously, but Jerome caught both of their fists in each of his hands, squeezed them so hard that the bones and muscles in their fingers and hands began to crack under the pressure, causing Murray's and Angel's faces to wince in pain, and spun them around in a circle, launching them across the room. Neyla pounced behind him without him noticing and managed to wrap her whip around one of his legs. Without hesitating, she flung him high up in the air; when he had almost reached the ceiling, she yanked hard on her whip and sent him plummeting back down to the ground.

Before he reached the bottom, he used his massive amount of momentum to flip his body back upright, which allowed him to land on his feet. Once he did, he pulled hard on the foot that Neyla's whip was attached to, which caused her to fly in his direction. Jerome clutched his fist, and when Neyla reached his location, he punched her in the stomach before she was able to touch the ground. The punch had enough force to send her flying across the room, but before she could he placed his other hand up against her back. This increased the force by succumbing it to a smaller area and not allowing it to spread out. When she was punched the only sound she could make was a high pitched squeal, followed by coughing up a bit of blood and saliva, and then suddenly collapsing to the ground, unconscious. The five guards who accompanied Angel all surrounded Jerome, pointing their machine guns at him, but faster than any of them could perceive the punched all five of them in the head; this caused their helmets to shatter to pieces, and their skulls to crack, all five of them collapsing to the ground, dead. Angel rose to her feet and bolted towards Jerome once again. The two of them locked hands and began to push against each other as hard as they possibly could, their muscles bulging with great intensity. The two of them appeared to be evenly matched regarding their physical strength; the moment that one of them would begin to push the other back, that one would increase their strength and push them back to an even level. This exchange continued for a little while, with everyone watching in in awe and amazement, too afraid to intervene. That was except for Murray. With Jerome vigorously focusing the entirety of his attention on Angel, Murray took the opportunity to sneak up behind his vicious father and punched him upside the head. He was able to unleash six punches to Jerome's temple, his distracted and confused him long enough for

Angel to take control of the bout, unleashing an indistinguishable number of fast, powerful blows to Jerome's head, stomach, arms, legs, and groin. Murray joined in on the assault, delivering so many punches and at such great speeds that there was no way for Jerome to dodge, counter, or attack them back. After several minutes of this, Jerome was sent down to the ground, and everyone remaining in the room surrounded him once again. Before they could do anything else, however, a strange figure came plummeting through the ceiling, destroying it even more than it already was. As his hulking frame crashed down to the ground, a gigantic crater was created, and Murray, Angel, Jing King, Neyla, and Bentley were all sent flying back, this time Bentley forced off of Jing King's back. Once the dust cleared and the rubble ceased flying, the figure was revealed to be none other than Jeremiah. The man turned around and stood all the way up on his feet, holding an unbelievably angry expression on his face. Like always he towered a few feet above everybody else in the room. The massive Gorilla clutched both of his fists, had a glazed over, venomous look in his eyes, and possessed absolutely no scratches, bruises, or wounds of any kind despite the huge fall. Murray and Angel lunged in his direction, each of them grabbing hold of one of his massive legs, their arms just barely able to reach around the length, but Jeremiah, effortlessly, kicked his legs forward, one at a time, sending them flying away, first Murray then Angel. Jeremiah attempted to punch Shotgun, Neyla, and Bentley, who were all within range of just one punch, but Jing King hurriedly scrambled to her feet, fully loaded her firework bazooka, and launched a barrage of fireworks at his fist. This attack did manage to cause enough pain to repel his fist back a bit, but it didn't seem to physically harm it at all. Jerome rose to his feet behind Jeremiah, and Jeremiah turned around to face him, not even paying any attention to the others in the room.

"I'm disappointed in you, Jerome. You couldn't even kill this garbage before you." Jeremiah exclaimed in a condescending tone of voice.

"Oh shut up and just help me finish them." Jerome demanded, fearlessly rolling his eyes. "The turtle, panda, hippo, and lioness have discovered our secrets, we can't allow them to leave this place alive."

Before they could proceed, several more choppers arrived and hovered above them, ten more to be exact. They fired some missiles, which finished blowing away the rest of the ceiling of the prison, and twenty figures adorned in dark blue cloaks jumped out and parachuted down to the ground. They released tons of long, thin, black cables, which wrapped tightly around Jerome and Jeremiah. This caused them to collapse to the ground, and a surge of electricity which traveled through them prevented them from standing back up again and breaking free from their restraints for the time being. One of their saviors picked up Neyla and slung her over his shoulder, Jing King picked up Bentley and set him back on her back again, and all eleven of them, along with Murray, Shotgun, and Angel made their way over to the center of the prison room. Long, thin, black cables extended out of the thirteen helicopters which hovered overhead. Jing King, Murray, Angel, Shotgun, and the ten people who came to save them grabbed hold of the cables, and were immediately yanked up to the choppers. They got in, closed the doors, and the thirteen choppers began flying away, while Jerome and Jeremiah were still tied up down below. As the helicopters began to disappear in the distance, Conquering suddenly showed up, teleporting in an aura of purple magic. As she entered she hovered in the air, but she slowly came and landed on the ground light as a feather. She reached her walking staff high in the air and without a single word cast a magic spell, which shattered the electrical cables covering Jerome and Jeremiah. After this they were able to stand up, but they still wobbled around in a slight dizziness, their massive, mountain-sized, bulging muscles still quivering in pain.

"Are my fearless leaders really hurting that much?" Conquering exclaimed with a cocky grin.

Jerome walked up to her and bumped into her, his face only mere inches away from hers, which caused her to back up, caught off guard. "Why didn't you chase after them? They know what we're planning!"

Before she responded Conquering used her magic to disappear and then reappear a little ways away from him. "It doesn't matter, you oaf. The Doc is almost finished with his work. It's about time for us to make our way to Fort Knox."

"Just like that?" Jeremiah boomed in a shocked tone of voice. "Last I heard he had several weeks of work left."

"He had…some special help suddenly." Conquering explained. "Regardless we need to get out of here. Apparently Angel sent an anonymous tip to Interpol, so they should be here any moment now."

Conquering smashed the end of her staff on the ground, which caused purple magical energy to circle the entire prison. After several seconds of buildup, the building and everyone inside disappeared out of thin air. Moments later many more helicopters and ships showed up to the island. Interpol agents piled off of the ships and parachuted out of the helicopters. It took awhile, but they eventually gathered together where the prison used to be. Now, however, all they could see before them was an enormously massive hole in the ground, which was so wide around that nobody could see from one end to the other, and so deep that nobody could see the bottom, it seemed like it went on forever, and got darker and darker the deeper that it went. Most of the Interpol agents wore black leather armor all over their body. There was only three exceptions, Winthrop, Rick, and Barkley. Most of their body was covered, but that excluded their heads and faces. Rick, Winthrop, and Barkley were wielding one shock pistol in their hands, another one being sheathed on each of their waists. The rest of the Interpol agents had weapons which ranged from shock pistols, to normal pistols, to shotguns, to blunderbuss', to machine guns. As the agents continued to gather together, the helicopters began landing anywhere that they could, the agents making sure to get out of their way so that they don't get crushed.

"Captain Barkley, all sectors clear." Winthrop stated. "No criminals appear to be remaining on the entire island. Even the prison itself is gone."

"I swear, things are getting stranger and stranger." Rick lamented. "How the hell does a several story tall, several story wide prison just disappear without a trace?"

"And what's with this hole in the ground?" Barkley questioned.

"According to the anonymous tip we got, the criminal syndicate we're chasing took over Alcatraz and expanded on the prison, building a section deep underground. I'm not sure how much truth was in that statement, though." Winthrop explained.

"Rick, I want you to headline setting up some Interpol outposts on this island." Barkley ordered in a loud, booming tone of voice. "We need to hurry and reclaim any base that Alexander possesses."

"Should I go to Monaco and reclaim the castle that he had there?" Winthrop inquired.

"No." Barkley shot it down matter-of-fact. "That's the heart of Angel's territory, it would be a big mistake for you, alone, to attempt and take over a location that, by all technicality, belongs to her. Instead I want you to travel to Hawaii. I hear that Alexander is held up over there. Specifically Honalulu."

"On our way here we saw choppers that belong to Angel and Shotgun's syndicates, which means that you'll likely be heading into a full scale war. Be careful."

Winthrop quickly holstered his shock pistol on his waist and ran over to one of the black choppers, hopping into the pilot's side, closing the door, starting the ignition, and flying it high up in the air. He turned it around part way, and then began soaring through the air, eventually disappearing into the distance. Meanwhile, the Cooper Gang was flying quite the distance ahead of him. Angel, Bentley, and Jing King were in the same helicopter, Angel flying and Jing King sitting in the passenger's side, with Bentley still holding tightly on Jing King's back. Angel's chopper and one other chopper, which was being flown by Shotgun, were both side by side, and in the lead of all of the other choppers.

"How long until we reach Hawaii?" Bentley questioned. His voice was louder and more steady than before.

"With any luck, at this height and speed, we should reach our destination in a couple hours." Angel responded with a smile on her face.

"I hope so, we don't have much time left." Bentley stated.

"How come?" Angel shifted the corner of his eye in his direction with a concerned expression on her face.

"I'll be blunt and straightforward." Bentley exclaimed. "We found out that Alexander has a mind control device. His first test subjects were the prisoners of Alcatraz, but he's almost prepared to use them on nearly anybody else. He's planning on literally turning the entire world against us."

"Do not forget about this 'time machine' thing." Jing King reminded him in a low, respectful tone of voice.

"Yes, that's right." Bentley replied. "We knew about that before, but now we're aware of his goal. Jing King interrogated one of the prisoners for us, who was apparently pretty high up in the ranks of Alexander's syndicate. He wants to erase the Cooper Clan from existence."

"Why? I know the Cooper Clan have been thieves for generations, but Alexander is a criminal as well." Angel commented.

"I know, it doesn't make any logical sense." Bentley agreed. "We also know where two of their other major operations are at. Hawaii, which is where we should head next, and Fort Knox, which is their primary base of operations."

"How did you discover all of this?" Angel inquired.

"We found a heavily secured room with a massive super computer. After a little bit of hacking, I was able to uncover all of this." Bentley explained. Normally his voice would show some pride in the face of his wonderful hacking job, but instead he just yawned, still exhausted.

"What about your wheel chair, Bentley?" Jing King asked in a low, calm, and concerned tone of voice.

"Penelope has the schematics, when we arrive at Hawaii she should be able to build me a new one in no time." Bentley stated with confidence in his voice. "By the way, mind explaining who this Shotgun guy is?"

"You'd need to ask him about that, because I'm not aware of the specifics." Angel lamented in a low, sad tone of voice. "All I know is that he's descended from a long line of thieves just like your friend Sly, and that he used to work pretty closely with Sly's father, Conner Cooper, but they had a falling out sometime in the past."

Meanwhile, in Shotgun's helicopter, which was flying alongside Angel's, Shotgun was the one piloting, and McSweeney was sitting beside him. McSweeney was gazing out the window, his elbow on the ledge and his hand resting against his chin, his facial expression giving off an air of discomfort and displeasure. Shotgun's expression was pretty blank, almost impossible to read. McSweeney occasionally glanced his gaze over at Shotgun, but immediately averted his eyes back out his window when Shotgun looked over at him. The two sat in silence for a moment until Shotgun finally broke the silence.

"I'm not any happier about this than you are, buddy." Shotgun lamented matter-of-fact. "I hope we can get along until this whole situation with Alexander is resolved."

"I am capable of cooperating when I need to, you don't need to worry about that." McSweeney responded in a gruff tone of voice. "If I need to fight, I'll fight, and if you're in danger, I'll save you. Alexander is far too dangerous for us to get distracted by our petty grievances."

"I'm happy to see that we agree on something." Shotgun replied, plastering a half-hearted smile on his face. "Your muscle is definitely going to be required, especially since we'll be going up against the Fiendish Five soon."

"Who?" McSweeney questioned with a confused expression on his face. He turned his head to face Shotgun, but the rest of his body language was still in the direction of his window.

"Don't you know anything?" Shotgun asked. "They were the group of criminals that killed Conner and Roxanne, and that Sly and his friends took down years later."

This managed to get McSweeney's attention completely. His entire body language was giving Shotgun his full attention now. "Does that mean Clockwerk as well?" He asked with a serious tone of voice.

"Unsure." Shotgun replied. "I hope not, I really do, but we can't throw out that possibility."

McSweeney stopped leaning forward toward Shotgun and leaned back against his seat, gazing out the front window of the helicopter. "God dammit. I can't believe this."


	10. Hawaiian Hullabaloo

_**Sly Cooper: Legacy of Thieves**_  
 _ **Chapter 9**_  
 _ **Hawaiian Hullabaloo**_

A large metal ship sailed slowly across the coast of Honolulu, Hawaii. The storm which pummeled Alcatraz Island was nothing more than a light sprinkle around here, so Penelope, Jean Bison, Dimitri, and Carmelita stood out in the open, their eyes piercing in the direction of their destination. Carmelita gripped her shock pistol tightly, her finger grazing the trigger, the other shock pistol fastened to her waist, Dimitri grabbed hold of his harpoon gun, his diving gear already covering his body, his mask lifted up slightly to be atop his head, Jean Bison unleashing a huge, loud, growling yawn, reaching the club he wields across the back of his neck, and Penelope held a miniature tablet in her hand and contentiously swiped and typed away on it. Her eyes would occasionally shift back and fourth from her tablet and the island before them. Dawn was beginning to break, the sun, very slowly, peaking over the horizon, causing everyone to have to squint their eyes; this excluded Dimitri, because he had a stylish pair of black sunglasses on his eyes. Everywhere they could see were other ships which they knew belonged to Alexander, each one heavily armored and fortified, with dozens of guards aboard each one, way too many to count, but for some reason they weren't attacking, even though it should be obvious who they are. After awhile the Cooper Gang's ship stopped, everyone picking up the anchors and throwing them into the ocean, causing it to halt almost immediately.

Penelope was the first to speak. As she did, she didn't move her eyes from her tablet, even for a moment. "I got a hold of the contacts that Angel has within Alexander's syndicate. That's why we aren't being targeted." It was like she could read everyone's minds. "However, I don't know how long it will last, so we need to reach the hideout immediately."

"Got a location pinned down?" Carmelita inquired matter-of-fact.

"Of course." Penelope responded with confidence, walking over to the Fo'c'sle of the ship. "But we'll have to be careful, because I can't guarantee that every guard on this island will ignore us. Not to mention, if Tony catches us then he definitely won't."

Penelope shifted her gaze towards Dimitri. Dimitri's eyes locked with hers intensely, which caused her to make a disgusted face and shift them away slightly. Dimitri licked his lips and walked towards her, his webbed diving shoes clapping loudly on the floor of the ship. Penelope backed up a little ways. The way Dimitri grinned at her made her shiver with uneasiness.

"Um, Dimitri, I need to to examine the depths of the ocean surrounding Hawaii." Penelope stated. "Your job isn't to attack anything or anyone. Just pretend to be a normal guard, and analyze anything you can. I've built a scan and camera feature into your binocucom, which should make it easy."

"Yes lady, my love will drench to the bottom and back for your loveliness." Dimitri exclaimed, earning him concerning looks from Penelope, Jean Bison, Carmelita, and the elephant guard who was steering their ship. "Perhaps once this job has been done, you shall reward me with the supple touch of your lips and bod, my sweet one."

Dimitrii grazed Penelope's cheek with one of his long, purple fingers, but Penelope reached into the pouch attached to her fanny pack and pulled out a dagger. She swiped it near Dimitri's finger, which he retracted very quickly.

"Keep your fingers off or I'll cut them off." Penelope demanded. "Just do your job and shut up."

"Ah, so harsh on me sweet, feeble heart!" Dimitri said. "But never you mind, it shall be done! I dive baby! I dive for the looooove!"

Dimitri set his harpoon gun down int he corner of the ship and then, from standing in the center of the ship, leaped all the way over the edge and splashed into the water; before he made contact with the water he quickly slid his diving mask over his face. Moments after he submerged he immediately began flapping his legs and feet rapidly, which caused him to propel fast through the water. Penelope then walked over to Carmelita, who was standing by the quarterdeck of the ship, sitting down on the floor cross legged, with her shock pistol laying on her lap.

"You're up next. I need you to do some recon around Honolulu. I don't have anything specific in mind, just snap pictures of anything that you think looks suspicious. I'll also give you the coordinates for the hideout that we've pinpointed, and I want you to investigate that location, make sure it's safe." Penelope explained.

"About time. My whole bodies been getting stiff from just sitting around on this ship." Carmelita stated, standing up to her feet.

Penelope handed her a square badge, which she used to replace her Interpol badge, placing the latter in the pouch attached to her fanny pack. She then ran over to the Fo'c'sle of the ship and did a massive jump over to the island of O'ahu, sticking the landing, and commencing with running as fast as she could. Afterwards, Jean Bison trotted slowly and loudly over to Penelope, slamming the large round tip his massive, brown, wooden club on the floor of the ship, gripping the handle in his hand.

"Any job for me little lady?" He asked in a bored tone of voice. "I been sittin' round too long, I need sum action now."

"Not yet." Penelope said. "To be honest, it will most likely be awhile before I"m ready for you to take the field, due to your rather large muscular frame and low tempter I'm afraid that you'll stand out too much. Not to mention, I don't have any tasks which would fit your particular skills yet."

"Ah, fine." Jean Bison lamented, slapping his club over his shoulder. "Imma go below deck to do some good, intense trainin' in the meantime."

Jean Bison walked over to the center of the ship, opened the wooden hatch in the floor, and hopped through, slamming it behind him, a faint thud being heard below. Once Penelope was alone she was shocked to see Bentley's face come up on her tablet, a live call. She answered immediately by swiping the screen.

"Penelope, we're on our way to Hawaii!" Bentley exclaimed in a loud, desperate tone of voice, his voice sounding more nastily and high pitched than ever.

"Bentley? What's the matter? How did your mission in Alcatraz go?"

"Surprisingly good, all things considered. I can't explain everything now, I'll tell you once I arrive. How far have you guys gotten?" Bentley asked.

"We just arrived not long ago. I've sent out Dimitri and Carmelita, and put Jean Bison on standby. Have you heard from Sly and the others?"

"Negative. I think it's unlikely that we will for awhile either, because getting reception in the Australian Outback is a pain in the ass, I know that from personal experience; it'll probably be even more difficult with Conquering taking over that area."

"When should you arrive?"

"With any luck, we should be at Hawaii within 12 hours." Bentley said confidently.

"Very well." Penelope said with a relieved sigh. "I just sent you our current exact coordinates, and I'll update them whenever we move a great distance away. Be careful."

Before Bentley could respond, Penelope heard an extremely loud whistle blow from shore, so Penelope hurriedly shut off his video conversation with Bentley. She walked over to the Fo's'cle, and saw a rhinoceros slightly shorter and less muscular than Tony. The ship was tugging back and fourth gently against the light waves in the water, and the sails were blowing a tiny bit because of the gentle breeze. Penelope picked up a wooden plank and laid it from the edge of the Fo's'cle to the ground, after which walking down it and greeting her unsuspecting guest.

"How many?" The guard asked matter-of-fact, and in a gruff tone of voice.

"Eight." Penelope responded plainly.

"I've never seen anyone travel on a sailing ship before." The guard stated with a smug grin. "What, are ou stuck in a time before any of us were even alive?"

"It was cheap." Penelope replied, placing a fake, seemingly playful smile on her face. "Plus it's much easier to use."

"Yeah, whatever. Anyways, fill out this and give them back to me. After that, you're free to remain in Hawaii as long as you desire." The guard ordered, handing her a small, thin pamphlet.

Penelope received it and walked up back to their ship. She grabbed a pen from a desk by the steering wheel, laid down on her stomach, and began filling out the forms. As she did, she reminisced how strict security is. The gang has only been chasing Alexander and his syndicate for a couple weeks, but within that time he's obtained such a strangle hold over many territories, even within the United States. It's a mystery how the US government, and other governments, seem to have no power to fight against him. And Hawaii possessed the largest fortress of his that they've witnessed yet. According to Penelope's satellites, every island were surrounded by Alexander's ships and guards, although some more than others. The island they were currently on, O'ahu, and especially the city of Honolulu, were the most populous with Alexander's armed soldiers and mercenaries. The way they patrolled the streets with their weapons aimed and their expressions bland and terrifying made it seem like an Oligarchy, but it's probably more like either a dictatorship or a monarchy considering Alexander's personality. If the gang was discovered here, they'd have no way to escape. All of Alexander's ships were heavily armed with canons, missiles, machine guns, and torpedoes, so even if they managed to plow through all of his guards, their ship would undoubtedly be sunk. The real reason they had to bring a wooden ship was because of the dozens of electromagnetic buoys which littered the Hawaiian waters. How Alexander's ships were able to be immune to their magnetic powers was unknown, but if they came with a metal ship they would have been attracted to their doom immediately. Occasionally a plane commissioned by Alexander could be seen soaring through the sky, each one possessing a spotlight on the bottom so they could observe the ground, but not frequently.

When she was done, Penelope exited the ship again and handed the pamphlet back to the guard; the guard, in return, handed her eight badges, which would signify that, herself, Jean Bison, Dimitri, Carmelita, and even Murray, Jing King, Neyla and Bentley, when they arrived, were entering Alexander's territory legally. After that she went back up to the ship and made her way below deck, where she saw Jean Bison lifting gigantic dumbbells in a corner, each one having the distinction of 1,000 pounds placed on the sides. Sweat drenched his entire body, but the up and down movements of his arms were incredibly fast, and despite the gruffness of both him and his weights were almost entirely silent, the only sounds coming from his direction being his heavy breathing, which caused his diaphragm to pulsate in and out rapidly, and the occasional light creeks of his weights. His club was laying on the ground underneath of the small, metal, padded bed that he was laying on. A computer with two monitors, two keyboards, and two mice on a long, brown desk, with one small, brown chair placed in front of it. Penelope sat down at her computer and began speedily typing, one hand on each keyboard. The right monitor and keyboard was observing and controlling Penelope's satellites that were patrolling earth, and the left monitor and keyboard was Penelope attempting to hack into Alexander's computer systems so that she could find key locations for the Gang to investigate. Jean Bison, while still lifting weights, glanced over to the computer screens, but averted his gaze because all he could see was a bunch of confusing, jumbled code which he couldn't even begin to understand, rolling his eyes. During this whole ordeal Penelope's face remained straight and unflinching, a pair of glasses on her face, which she rarely wore, and her eyes squinting, concentrating as hard as she possibly could.

Meanwhile, Dimitri swam like a bullet through the water. The waves were rather strong, but that didn't slow him down a bit. His legs were moving so fast that they could barely be seen, his eyes straight as a board by his side, his eyes fastened directly forward, water seeping little by little into his clear, plastic goggles. After awhile he saw four guards swimming in his direction, so he swam to a deeper level and ducked inside a massive reef of coral, doing his best to remain as motionless as he possibly could. One of the guards was a monk seal, the tallest, or perhaps longest, with powder blue skin, deep black eyes that could barely be seen through his goggles, thin white whiskers which were almost entirely concealed by his diving gear, a little bit of yellow on his lips, two thick, gray fins on either side of his body, a decently long, gray tail on his back, no hair on his head, and diving gear thicker and more complicated than Dimitri's or any of the other three guard's. The second was an Indian Mongoose. Unmistakably the tiniest of the four, sporting dark brown fur, deep black eyes, short but sharp claws on all four paws, small ears dark brown on the outside and light brown on the inside, and a little bit of pink surrounding his eyes, his mouth so closed and covered by fur that it most likely wouldn't have been visible if it wasn't for the air tube sticking into his mouth. Due to being the smallest he was also the fastest swimmer aside form the Monk Seal. The third guard was an Axis Dear. He had light brown fur with dozens of white dots littering his entire back, an almost entirely white underside, deep black eyes, nose, and lips, an almost 50 percent mix of white and black on all four of his legs and hooves, two long, floppy ears with dark brown on the outside and white on the inside. In addition to the rest of his diving gear, he possessed a jet propulsion system on his underside adjacent to the air tank on his back, the former helping him swim through the water much better.

And the fourth is a Hawksbill Sea Turtle. This one wasn't the tallest or longest, but he was the widest, with most of his skin being a yellowish-orangish color, two long, black fins with tons of white lines running through them which make all sorts of strange shapes and designs, deep black eyes, and a thick shell with random colors of black, gray, yellow, orange, and red all over it. Once the four guards stopped swimming they spoke to each other somehow. Their lips didn't move, and Dimitri could hear a single tiny sound coming from them, but he could tell that they were interacting verbally. While talked they were slowly and gently floating up, and down, and side to side as small waves crashed against them. After a couple minutes they stopped speaking and began swimming again, traveling deep into the dark distance. Dimitri emerged from the coral reef that he was hiding in and began to tail them, swimming slow enough so they don't see him, but fast enough so that he doesn't loose them. They eventually came to a huge, dark, underwater cave. Dimitri used his long, purple, pointy fingers to pull four tiny tracking devices out of a compartment attached to his diving gear that Penelope stuck in their earlier. He had no idea how they worked, but he knew the basics of how to utilize them. He stuck one in between each of his fingers and waved his fingers towards the four guards in front of them. When he released them they bolted towards the guards and attached to their diving gear without them noticing. When it came to the Hawksbill Sea Turtle, due to him being the only one that wasn't wearing diving gear, the tracking device attached to the center of his ovular-shaped shell. He then pulled out a small waterproof tablet. Again, Dimitri didn't know the complexities of this strange device, but there was only one thing that he needed to know about it, swiping the screen to turn it on, follow the blinking dots on the map that appeared, which signified the exact location of the guards, and read the text on the screen, which told the name of tons of crucial locations underwater, which Penelope discovered thanks to her satellites.

When Dimitri finally entered the cave as well, he flicked on a bright light which was attached to the helmet of his diving gear. The light was bright enough to guide Dimitri decently through the cave, but it didn't completely illuminate the entire thing, darkness still surrounding the many walls and crevasses that Dimitri swam past. Dimitri and the guards he was tailing didn't stop even for a moment until they reached the end of the extremely long cave. They eventually came to the end, where they saw an exit. The four guards jumped out of the water, while Dimitri treaded the water's surface, peaking his eyes above the surface, remaining as motionless as possible so that he can't be heard within the water. The guards proceeded to take off all of their diving gear, from their oxygen tanks and maxes, to their goggles, to their to their latex suites, and tossed them all over the ground in disarray. Dimitri could now see that the Axis Dear's eyes were slanted, he had a massive tattoo of a red Chinese dragon on his back, which was visible due to him being shirtless. The four then headed through a wooden door, disappearing.

"Aright, bro, time ta jump n zig-zag thru ler compounds, it be nuthin for me." Dimitri whispered to himself.

Unknowingly, Penelope was listening in, and she responded, also in a whisper. "No Dimitri, don't! Just take a picture of that room. I took the liberty of installing a camera in your binocucom."

Dimitri groaned in disappointment, but did as he was told; he hopped out of the water, took out his binocucom, snapped a picture, and then backflip dived back in immediately, after which bolting back through the cave, going at a much higher speed this time around. Meanwhile, Penelope's left computer monitor, which previously was the one which was monitoring the security that Alexander had in Hawaii, switched over to monitoring the four guards that Dimitri was tailing. They appeared as four red dots. After typing on the adjacent keyboard he was able to hack into the security cameras in the rooms that they were in, and get a clear view of those rooms. By this point all four of them were in different rooms. On her other monitor Penelope did some research on them and discovered their names. The Hawksbill Turtle was Kilikikopa Kalanianioli, the Monk Seal was Kuali'I Iolani, the Indian Mongoose, the only female of the group, was A'ia'I Pouha, and the Axis Deer, the only non Hawaiian one of the group, he was Chinese, was Liang Qigang. The room that Kauli'l was in had a massive swimming pool inside of it; without hesitating, he leaped in the air and splashed in the water, swimming around it wildly in an attempt to unwind. Kilikikopa Kalanianioli simply ducked his head, arms, and legs into his shell, remaining motionless, Aiia'l Pouha was searching around his room for something, of what Penelope could not be certain, and Liang Qigang grabbed a couple pairs of gauntlets that were hanging on the wall and fit them snugly on all four of his hooves. All four of them were had tips that were in the shape of large human fists, and when Liang bent over it was clear that he could still walk with them on. Liang's room was very peculiar; posters of ancient Chinese deities, such as Gaunyin, Jade Emperor, Wangmu Niangniang, Yan Wang, Long Wang, Nuwa, Nezha, Caishen, Cheng'e, and The Eight Immortals, among others.

One poster which definitely caught Penelope's attention was a detailed sketch which looked ominously like Panda King. She couldn't ignore it, so using Liang's own security camera she snapped a picture of it, and of all of the other posters, and Liang himself, while she was at it. Only moments after that Liang summoned fire around his right fist gauntlet and launched a fireball at the poster, incinerating it on sight. This action caused Penelope to gulp, a tinge of fear stretching the length of her spine, but she still kept hacking as fast as she possibly could. The room that A'ia'l was in was the smallest of them all; in fact, it was more like a rat's hole than an individual room, slightly bigger because Mongoose's are bigger than rat's, but not by much. This also meant that the cameras had to have been smaller as well, smaller than any other security cameras that Penelope had ever seen before. Her quarters were unbelievably filthy, with dirt, dust, and spider webs everywhere that Penelope could see on her computer, no matter which camera in the room that she switched to. The thing that caught Penelope's attention here was a large piece of paper which had some peculiar plans on them. A'ia'l unfolded them and spread them out; even though the ceiling was incredibly low, the room was surprisingly incredibly wide. The plans indicated that some prisoners were being held here in Hawaii. They were signified by the initials SR, MS, MR, PK, CW, and DO. Penelope didn't know what the initials stood for, but the plans did signify the exact locations of where they were being kept. It also mentioned someone called The Doc who was in charge of experimenting on them and interrogating them. Again, she didn't know who "The Doc" was referring to. She used one of A'ia'l's security cameras to snap a picture of those detailed plans, and of A'ia'l herself.

After that Penelope switched to another room. This was the largest of the four rooms, which had a gigantic pool in the center and Kuali'l swimming throughout it, frequently leaping out, splashing back in, and diving to the deeper sections, before repeating himself. Penelope snapped a picture of the pool alone when Kuali'l was deeply submerged, and then snapped a picture of Kuali'l himself when he briefly jumped out of the pool again while he was suspended in the air. Unlike the previous two rooms, which were surrounded mostly by bland brown stone walls, the walls in this room consisted of red tile blocks. A brown leather rug was on the entirety of the ground; around the pool was a glass shield extending several feet high which prevented water from splashing the rug or the walls. The walls were mostly baron, except for a peculiar small black safe on one of them; interested, Penelope quickly snapped a picture of it before switching the screen to the last room. This room was where Kilikikopa Kalanianioli was located. This looked a lot different than the others. It was quite small, although not as tiny as Ai'ia'l's rabbit hole. This room was more like an attic in design. The walls were lined with mysterious boxes. Penelope snapped a picture of each wall and group of boxes, as well as a miniature plexiglass skylight on the ceiling. After that, all of a sudden, twelve tiny holes opened up in his shell, and he opened up one of the boxes; Penelope took a picture of both Kilikikopa and the inside of the box. The box contained a bunch of cylinder devices of unknown origin or usage. He took twelve of them out and stuck them in the holes in his shell. After that streams of smoke continuously ejected from the holes, which caused Kilikikopa to levitated high up in the air. This sight plastered an interested, confused on Penelope's face, and she took yet another picture of him again.

After that Penelope used the information she gathered in all of the security cameras that she hacked into so far to locate some additional cameras in another room. She was unable to locate how to get to the room itself, but the sight in the room shocked and disturbed Penelope. It was larger than the previous five rooms, including the room where they entered, combined, with no doors or windows, air vents, or any other possible way to enter in sight. All four of the walls were lined with beds, twenty in total, with seven of them having certain individuals strapped to them, Sir. Raleigh the Frog, Muggshot, Mz. Ruby, The Panda King, Don Octavio, Pirate Captain LeFwee, and General Tsao. While Penelope had never gone up against the first five of them, she's definitely done research on the Cooper Gang's exploits against them, and she definitely remembers General Tsao and Captain LeFwee all too well, especially LeFwee. They were all unconscious. General Tsao was a white feathred rooster. He wore a purple gi and the golden torso plate his golden spiked shield, his purple and gold helmet with a large red feather, and golden cuffs, which would normally go around his wrists, were laying on the ground next to his bed. He had purple circles under his orange eyes, a yellow beak with a small black Fu Manchu. Raleigh was a very small green frog with brown eyes. Laying next to his bed was white gloves, white shoe spats, and a distinctive blue top hat made of metal. Muggshot was a massive bulldog with unbelievably huge muscles in his hands, arms and stomach, and abs, contrasting humorously to his tiny legs and feet, with lilac fur, a thick, black, handlebar mustache on his face and a mono-brow just above his eyes. He was adorned in a black tank top, black pants held up with a blue belt, and black dress shoes on his feet. Mz. Ruby, due to her massive tail, had to be tied down on her side.

She is a dark green alligator with a light green belly and mouth, along with sharp teeth, spikes on her tail and dark blue hair. Her attire included what appeared to be a pinkish-purple sleeveless shirt, a red bandanna on her head tying up her hair, one gold ring on each of her ankles and two of them on her wrists. She also has her fingernails and toenails painted red in addition to the ruby on her belly button, and a gold necklace around her neck. Her appearance is typical of a voodoo priestess. Her tail was so thick and long that it had to be slightly tucked underneath of the bed that she was laying on. The Panda King was a huge Panda who wore flame-striped red pants, a blue sash around his waist, was covered in thin pure snow white fur, and had purple eyes and blue face paint lining the outer rim of his eyes. Laying next to his bed was his firework bazooka filled to the brim with fireworks. Don Octavio was a lion adorned in a black shirt, black pants with white stripes, and has a white mask fitted onto his face. He has a massive yellow mane and beard, and brown fur covering his body. The black at that he's usually seen wearing was laying on the floor next to his bed. Captain LeFwee was an extremely tiny orange parrot with a beard made of feathers. He had a black eyepatch over his left ey e, and wore a purple coat that reached down to his feet, along with a black belt around his waist. He wore one purple shoe, and had a wooden leg. Next to his bed was laying a small multi-purpose hook, similar to an army knife, which was the very weapon that he used to fight against Penelope many years ago. In the center of the room was a control panel which extended from the ground several feet. As Penelope kept hacking, she noticed codes that were directing her underground, but she couldn't figure out how to reach the location that she wanted to. After that she pressed the space bar on her keyboard, which caused the screen which corresponded with the keyboard, and began to focus her full attention to the other one.

Behind her, she heard a huge thud; tilting her head to the side, she saw Jean Bison, who had sat the weights he was lifting up against the wall, all of his fur which could be seen drenched with sweat, his eyes sealed shut so the salt doesn't burn them. He remained on his back for a little while longer, breathing heavily, his chest rising and lowering with every deep breath that he inhaled and exhaled, his arms and his legs flailed out to either side, weakened from exhaustion. In the meantime Penelope returned her attention to her computer monitor. After some quick typing, she monitor split into two; one half had a moving yellow dot and the other half showed a moving green dot. These were the current and ever changing locations of Carmelita and Bentley respectively. Elsewhere, Carmelita continuously leaped buildings in a single bound, sticking the landing each time and immediately afterwards continuing to run and jump, not wasting any time at all. Far away from the docks where they arrived, the buildings of the city stretched high into the sky, and the streets below were unbelievably populated with citizens both driving and walking, but that doesn't mean that Alexander's influence wasn't still felt on a disturbing level. For every citizen of Honolulu walking in parking lots and on sidewalks there were probably two or more of Alexander's guards patrolling, armed with weapons and possessing the most stern and emotionless expressions on their faces, to the point that tension was so high it felt like someone could explode at any moment, and if that happened then tons of people would definitely die. She felt bad, but she had to ignore their suffering for the time being and continue; the only way to end Alexander's tyranny was to attack it at its core, saving a few individuals and exposing her true identity would solve absolutely nothing. Before long Carmelita was confronted by a tall Hawaiian Nene.

It was twice the height of her, with a neck longer than any of her arms or legs individually, a long, jagged, black beak, large, black eyes, long, black legs with wide, black, webbed feet and seemingly extremely sharp talons, and partially black, partially brown, partially gray, and partially white feathers littering his entire body. In one of his hand talons, which was attached to one of his wings, he held a black Uzi Sub-Machine Gun. Strapped to his back was a black Heckler and Knoch MG4, and holstered on either side of his waist was two M1911 Browning Pistols, which were mostly gray with small stripes of black on either sides of the handle. He also adorned in special glasses over his eyes. While they looked just like typical sunglasses, Carmelita recognized them as night vision goggles, which, during the day, appeared to just be sunglasses. They were invented by Interpol. The guard immediately unholstered one of his M1911 Browning Pistols, and pointed both it and his Uzi Sub-Machine Gun at Carmelita, who, without hesitation, paused in her tracks, also pointing her shock pistol at the guard. After a few moments it suddenly began to dawn on her that this was one of Alexander's guards, and so she slowly lowered down to the ground, set her shock pistol down, rose back up, and raised her hands high up in the air. The guard pointed his Uzu Sub-Machine Gun at Carmelita's waist; getting the hint, she unholstered her other shock pistol and set it on the ground as well, after which raising her hands back up again. Following this the guard pointed his Uzu Sub-Machine Gun at both of the shock pistols, sliding it on the air towards him. Carmelita then proceeded to bend down and slid the shock pistols towards him, after which returning to her position of fearful surrender.

"State your identity and business here." The guard demanded. Despite his uncomfortably commanding appearance, his voice was much lighter than one would expect, although it was still as serious as you'd think.

"I'm Carmelita…Alessandra Barrios." She responded with a partial lie. "I'm a new recruit into Lord Alexander's syndicate."

"Wait there." The guard exclaimed.

He pulled a small device out of a pouch on his waist, typing on it while still pointing his Uzi at Carmelita, directing one eye at the device and the other eye at her. After a few moments he gave her his full attention once again, putting the device away.

"Put your badge on." The guard demanded.

Carmelita did what she was told, pulling it out of her pouch and slung the band attached to it around her neck, allowing the badge to dangle just above her breasts. Unlike the Interpol badges, which were yellow stars, Alexander's badges were red pentagrams streaked with several extremely tiny white stripes.

"Carmelita Alessandra Barrios, recruited today, rooftop guard. My apologies for the confusion. My name is Milimili Moliakalaniikeola. I'm the commander of the sixth battalion in Lord Alexander's syndicate." His stern frown rose to a slight grin. "I want to give you a job then. Consider it to be a test of your skills. Interpol agents have invaded us, and we need you to hunt them down. Can you take care of it?"

"Uh, yeah." Carmelita replied. "I actually happen to be someone who defected from Interpol, and I was a pretty high ranking agent."

"Yeah, I heard Alexander was beginning to allow Interpol agents to defect. We really must be struggling with manpower these days." Milimili stated in a sarcastic tone of voice, saying that second sentence lightly under his breath. "Regardless, this is your first task, track each of them down without any aid and eliminate them."

"Okay, but how do I find you when I'm finished?" Carmelita inquired.

"You won't. I'll find you." Milimili said, after which hopping up in the air, flapping his wings, and flying away at a speed where he could quickly disappear in the distance.

Carmelita took a deep breath, in and out, using her fingers to wipe bits of sweat off of her forehead. She was so baffled that she was lost for words for awhile. She was still attempting to discern what had just happened, and how she managed to get out of that situation, but she still put a pleased, cocky grin on her face, pushing it out of her mind. She picked up both of her shock pistols, sheathed one of them by the left side of her waist, gripping the other in both of her hands, and continuing to run as fast as she can and jumping from building to building. As she did she kept scanning her eyes, in quick succession, across buildings that she didn't go near, high up to the skies, and all the way down to ground level. After awhile she saw a disturbing sight; Captain Barkley, walking on a sidewalk. Once she got a look at the front of him, she could see that he also managed to acquire a badge for Alexander's syndicate, which was strung around his neck, explaining why the guards weren't attacking him. Carmelita executed a massive backflip down quite a ways, landing lightly on the top of a light pull. After that she unleashed three consecutive shock pistol shots, making sure to purposely land them at Barkley's feet instead of hitting him; this caused him to jump from fear. Before he could look in her direction, she leaped down and did a spin kick into the side of his temple, launching him across the street and into a back ally. Before anyone could view her in detail she followed Barkley. As soon as Barkley landed he rolled a little ways more, and after that Carmelita tackled him, dragging him around the corner of the ally, and forcing his arms behind his back, pressing both of her knees up against the back of his knees, using her fingers to twist his wrists in uncomfortable ways. Barkley, unable to see who attacked him, wiggled around and did his best to struggle free, but never succeeded.

Carmelita put both of Barkley's wrists within the palm of one hand, pressing them against his back, and then unsheathed one of her shock pistols, holding it in front of Barkley's eyes; after he sees it, he quickly begins to stop resisting, his eyes widening and a small grin creeping onto his face. After that Carmelita released his wrists and stepped away from him, sheathing her shock pistol. Barkley rose to his feet, stretched his legs and arms, dusted himself off, and turned to face Carmelita, with a happy, satisfied expression on his face.

"What in sam hell are you doing here?" Barkley inquired. His voice sounded angry, but his happy grin never left his face.

"Sorry about the beat down." Carmelita said, responding to Barkley rubbing his damaged temple. "The rest of the Cooper Gang is in Hawaii too. I'm more shocked that you're here."

"Interpol sent Rick and I to infiltrate Alexander's syndicate." Barkley explained. "Winthrop as well, but he's at Alexander's main headquarters, Fort Knox. Rick, on the other hand, is here with me."

"Do you have some sort of GPS?" Carmelita asked.

Barkley shook his head yes, pulling it out. To Carmelita's shock, it looked exactly like the binocucoms that she and the rest of the Cooper Gang possessed; however, that shock only lasted for a few seconds, as she remembered that Interpol copied the source code for Sly's binocucom when he joined up with them, which is how she has one of her own to begin with. Carmelita took it, pressed a few buttons on it, and then took out hers, pressing some buttons on it as well, after which handing it back to Barkley.

"I just gave you the coordinates for our ship and hideout, and acquired the coordinates of Rick, Winthrop, and Interpol's nearby base." Carmelita explained. "Anyways, got any useful information?"

"Nah." Barkley lamented. "Alexander is incredibly paranoid, understandably considering the trouble that you and Cooper have been giving him. We're allowed to walk the streets of Hawaii, but there's very few buildings that we are permitted to enter."

Barkley began to stroke his long, thick mustache, but they were shocked when one of Alexander's guards turned the corner. The guard did spot them, but before he could attack or call for backup Carmelita leaped into action. She struck an electrical bullseye between the guard's eyes with her shock pistol, after which pulling a long, thin grappling line out of her belt and throwing it towards him, wrapping it around his leg, and yanking on it, causing him to fall on his back and be pulled in Carmelita's direction. Before he could get up Barkley punched him in the face, forcing him to go unconscious. Carmelita cuffed his hands behind is back and placed a strip of tape across his mouth, just in case he happened to wake up.

"Come with me." Carmelita ordered, as Barkley lugged the guard over his shoulder. "I'll take you back to our ship so we can interrogate this asshole."

After a little bit of time passed they returned to arrived at the Cooper ship. Carmelita hollered up at Penelope, who heard her cry, walked over to the deck, and let down the ramp, allowing both Carmelita and Barkley, along with their prisoner, to come on up, and after that the four of them went below deck before any nearby guards could notice them. Barkley through the guard on the floor, laying up up against a wall, and Carmelita hurriedly explained their situation to Penelope, the story of Barkley being here and of their unfortunate prisoner. Jean Bison, who was sitting on the floor in the corner of the room, stood up and joined them, gripping his brown club in his hand and clutching his opposite fist. After a little while longer the guard wakes up. He begins by slowly opening his eyes, which fidget slightly as he does. It takes him awhile to register those before him, but once he does he freaks out. He jumps hops up in the air a tiny bit and attempts to struggle free, but soon comes to the realization that his hands are restrained, and that his mouth is sealed shut, so he can't even speak. Carmelita made one step towards him and ripped the tape off of his mouth, causing him to yelp in pain from having the hair on his lips ripped off with it. Following that Carmelita was about to approach him again, but Jean Bison placed his club in front of her, signifying for her to stop, and approached him instead, jamming the handle of his club into the guard's kneecap. It didn't puncture all the way through, but enough to cause blood to trickle down his leg and foot. The pain was great, but the guard managed to keep mostly silent by biting his tongue, instead just letting out a tiny whimper. This action did, however, cause blood to seep from tongue and down his chin and neck. Penelope looked away in grotesque fear, and gazed over to Carmelita, who was still looking at this sight unyielding.

"I can stomach a lot of stuff, but this is a bit much." Penelope lamented sorrowfully, turning around completely in disgust. "How can you look at this guy being tortured?"

"I've grown used to it." Carmelita replied, Barkley simply giving a silent nod. "Interpol has some very…interesting ways of interrogation."

"Same here, little lady." Jean Bison agreed. "It's 'bout time I cured this boredom I been feelin' lately."

Jean slapped his club across the guard's face, after which flipping it around and jabbing the end of the handle into his stomach. Carmelita and Barkley aimed one of their shock pistols at him, Carmelita at his head and Barkley at his chest.

"Talk." Barkley demanded in a loud, booming, authoritative voice. "If you value your life, tell us everything about Alexander, his operations, and the best places to strike."

"Go. To. Hell." The guard stated, after which being smashed in the teeth by Jean Bison, a few of them being knocked out.

"That's where you'll be going soon if you don't speak up." Carmelita said matter-of-fact, gripping the top of his head with her other hand and lifting him up slowly so that he was sitting up straight.

"It doesn't matter how much you torture me, I won't talk." The guard said in an extremely confident tone of voice. "All of Alexander's men have been trained to withstand any amount of torture that you people could possible give to me."

"You poor child." Carmelita said, walking behind the guard and bending down to her knees, and rubbing her hands on his shoulders, still gripping her shock pistol with two of her fingers. "Never underestimate Interpol. And more importantly, never underestimate myself and Captain Barkley. If we want someone to speak, they will speak, as you will soon discover."

Carmelita took the back of her hand, the one opposite that was holding her shock pistol, and slapped the guard across the face, so hard that she drew blood, after which using the same hand to grip the top of his head again to lift him up with, rising to her feet and walking around to the front of him again.

"I'm only going to say this once." Carmelita exclaimed with venom in her voice. "Both me and my husband have been framed for crimes we didn't commit, forcing us to become actual criminals in order to clear our names. And clear our names we will. No matter what we have to do."

Carmleita jammed her knee into the guard's face, sending him smashing hard into the wall behind him, knocking even more teeth out, and causing a large crack to be placed in the wall. This action visibly rattled the guard, but he still managed to keep sitting upright and not fall over.

"Amazing." The guard said, blood trickling from his lips. "Your hypocrisy astounds me."

"What was that, runt?" Jean Bison boomed down to him, making his club fully visible in front of him, which was previously partially hidden behind him.

"How are we hypocrites?" Penelope questioned in a concerned tone of voice. "All we're trying to do is correct the unjust accusations prosecuted towards Sly and Carmelita!"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The guard bellowed, catching everyone else in the room off guard. "We haven't told any lies. All we did was bring the truth behind your lies to light."

Carmelita gritted her teeth and gripped her finger on the trigger of her shock pistol, but Penelope placed her hand on Carmelita's shoulder in an attempt to calm her down. It didn't work tremendously well, but it did prevent her from shooting him.

"Sly Cooper is a thief." The guard continued. "His entire clan were comprised of notorious criminals, and the two of you," pointing at Carmelita and then Barkley, "allowed him to join Interpol on the false pretense that he had amnesia. And as far as you go, Carmelita, you have aided him on multiple occasions. Fiendish Five, Clockwerk, KLAWW Gang, Neyla, Dr. M. your past deeds basically did the most complicated work for us."

Carmelita opened her mouth, but Penelope cut her off, her tone of voice calm and strict. "We get that you twisted the past in order to frame them, but what do you gain from it?"

"If you're trying to trick me into squealing, as I've already said, it won't work." The guard responded.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Jean Bison lunged forward and whacked the guard in the gut with his club, sending him flying across the room, smashing in the wall with great force. This changed the guard's tune awfully quickly. The impact was so hard that the ropes which were tying him up were wedged pretty loose, but he was in so much pain that he still couldn't move around and run away. This caused a frown to stretch across his lips, but only a brief moment later a smile crept back on his face again in an attempt to hide his agony. He gazed up at Jean Bison and leaned back against the wall as Jean Bison flexed his his muscles in rage, stepping towards him slowly.

"I'm surprised, Bison." The guard stated in a smug tone of voice. "From everything I've heard about you, you seem like the last person help out Cooper, or give a damn what we do to them."

"Can't say I do." Jean Bison responded matter-of-fact, his deep, threatening voice much lower than normal. "But I do care about being captured, imprisoned, and experimented on. I do care about loosing my freedom. This is your last chance jollocks, answer our questions or I will break every bone in your body." Jean Bison concluded by jamming the large end of his club into the wall.

This caused the guard to jump slightly. "You win." He replied, releasing a huge sigh of defeat. "I know when I'm beat. My master is creating an army."

"What about the time machine?" Penelope exclaimed in a serious tone of voice, walking forward to stand right next to Jean Bison.

"Yeah, that too." He responded. "However, he also needs an army. His syndicate has existed for many decades, but in recent years his numbers have been dwindling."

"Sure doesn't look like it." Carmelita said, after which receiving an agreeable nod of the head from Penelope and Barkley.

"Let me be clear, when I say numbers I'm talking about competent, powerful underlings." The guard explained. "Those guards you encountered outside are only threatening in great numbers, and even that is limiting if you're equipped with the appropriate weaponry and skill sets. Individually, they're worthless, with few exceptions."

"And let me guess, that's why he captured the KLAWW Gang, Fiendish Five, and other former enemies of ours." Penelope proclaimed. "That means that he's not just delving into time travel, but mind control as well."

"You don't give his intelligence and ingenuity enough credit." The guard stated.

"Enough beating around the bush." Carmelita demanded, pointing her shock pistol at his head again and grazing it across his fur.

"Fine, but I don't know as much as you probably want me to tell you." The guard admitted. "I know just enough to do my job. His main base is on Fort Knox."

"The United States Gold Foundry? Why?" Penelope inquired.

"Why not? With all of the gold that it possesses, he literally has way more money than he needs to fund his crusade." The guard explained. "I'm also aware that the current Commander his his younger brother, which is how he was able to take control of that fortress."

"Why did it take him this long to strike if he has this much damn influence?" Barkley blasted.

"Like I said before, diminishing numbers." The guard responded. "And that is partially thanks to Shotgun's syndicate and Conner Cooper, his two greatest rivals." All of a sudden a creepy, smug grin crept across his face. "I also know one other thing that I probably shouldn't. if you agree to set me free, I might consider telling you."

Without a word Carmelita kneed him across the face, knocking some more teeth out of his mouth in a bloody mess, sending him tumbling over on his side.

"You aren't in any position to negotiate." Carmelita commanded in a venomous tone of voice.

"Fine, fine." The guard conceded, sitting back up again to lean back up against the wall. "He has a secret base in New York City. However, I don't know where exactly, it's hidden somewhere in that monolith of a city. My informer was taken out before he could give me any more data."

"Thanks for the info." Carmelita said in a sarcastic tone of voice.

After that she stepped behind him, grabbed his wrists, untied and threw away the ropes, twisted his wrists slightly which caused him to wince in pain, and slammed handcuffs on him, locking them as tight as she possibly could. She then gripped both of his shoulders with both of her hands, forced him to his feet, and shoved him in Barkley's direction, who quickly grabbed the scruff of the guard's neck.

"Can you take care of him?" Carmelita asked.

"I'll try, if I can get out of here." Barkley replied.

"The guards are pretty thick, even on the water, but there's a few patches which are absent due to lack of men." Penelope explained, sitting down by her computer and proceeding to type rapidly. "I'll print you off a map, but tread with caution.

After a few seconds the map completely printed and Penelope grabbed it, walked over to Barkley, and handed it to him. He then walked over to the center of the room, flipped open the hatch, and jumped out, making sure to keep the guard close to his own body so that he couldn't run away, after which allowing the hatch to fall shut behind him.


End file.
